1906.] FEEDING FARM ANIMALS. 25 1 



Suppose, for instance, that a feeder purchases a steer at 

 four cents a pound Hve weight, feeds him for six months and 

 sells him for five cents a pound. Suppose the weight when 

 purchased was 1,200 pounds, and when sold 1,500 pounds, the 

 gain being three hundred pounds. Now suppose the three 

 hundred pounds cost fifteen dollars to make it, then no profit 

 has been made on the increase in weight. The profit comes 

 from the advance of one cent per pound in the value of each 

 of the 1,200 pounds of weight possessed by the animal when 

 the feeding began, that is to say, it would be twelve dollars, 

 leaving the value of the manure to offset the labor and interest 

 on the investment. 



The close relation, therefore, between buying and selling 

 prices in animals that have been fattened is very apparent. 

 The difference between the buying and selling price, as a rule, 

 should not be less than one cent per pound, if any considerable 

 profit is to come to the feeder. Before substantial profits can 

 be assured this difference should be from one and one-quarter 

 to one and one-half cents per pound. 



At first thought it may be imagined that, since profit in 

 feeding comes from the increase in value in the weight pos- 

 sessed by the animal at the time of purchase, the more the 

 animal weighs at that time, the greater will be the profit result- 

 ing from fattening. In many instances that does not follow, 

 since young animals considerably below maturity make greatest 

 increase for the food fed to them. 



The fallacy so extensively believed that pregnant animals 

 should be kept in moderately low flesh has done much harm. 

 It is, of course, quite possible to keep a pregnant dam in a 

 condition of flesh too high for the well-being of the progeny, 

 but the instances in which this occurs are few indeed compared 

 with those in which the opposite is true. 



The pregnant animal while in this condition must main- 

 tain herself and also nourish the foetus which she carries. The 

 double duty thus present calls for liberal feeding. Where this 

 is not forthcoming, the foetus is sustained in part at least at 

 the expense of a lowered condition of flesh in the animal. 

 This, of course, reduces the ability of the dam to properly 

 nourish the offspring after birth. 



After the young animal has been bom, the drain upon the 

 dam for its sustenance is usually heavy. To meet this need. 



