Abstract
Native mountain meadow hay harvested at two stages of maturity was fed to 137 wintering weanling and yearling beef cattle from 1945–1953. Significantly greater gains were obtained by the cattle fed early-cut hay during the winter feeding period. The restricted animals gained significantly more during the following summer, and at the end of the first year, the cattle fed the better quality forage still weighed significantly more than the animals fed late-cut hay, but the difference was small. Animals kept during a second year completely compensated for the two winters of restricted growth and were as heavy the second fall as the animals fed early-cut hay. Animals restricted in growth were not permanently stunted and tended to compensate for this restricted period quite rapidly. Copyright © . .