96 



It cost $11.54 to feed each steer in Lots 4 and 5 through 

 the summer when cottonseed cake is valued at $26.00 

 a ton and the pasture at 50 cents a month for each ani- 

 mal. Or it required 423 pounds of cottonseed cake at a 

 cost of $7.06, to malve 100 pounds of increase in live 

 weight. This was an unusually expensive gain for 

 summer feeding. 



The following extract is taken from Alabama Station 

 bulletin No. 151, which is a report of some previous 

 work done in fattening cattle in the summer time on 

 pasture : 'Tn every case above, the cost to make one 

 hundred pounds increase in live weight was very low. 

 (In one case $1.18 when pasture was used alone; in 

 another case $1.03; when cottonseed cake was used it 

 cost only $2,56 to make 100 pounds of gain in one 

 ^experiment, and $3.21 in a second test). When steers 

 -^re fattened during the winter time each pound of gain 

 is put on at a loss, as each pound ])ut on may be ex- 

 pected to cost from 8 to 12 cents; and the profit is de- 

 pendent upon the enchancement of the value of the 

 steer over and above the selling value of pounds of 

 gain made. In these tests each pound put on during 

 the fattening period was put on at a profit, a very 

 unusual occurrence in fattening beef cattle. These cheap 

 finishing gains made the feeding operations compar- 

 atively safe as far as profits were concerned. As stated 

 JDefore, these cheap gains were due to two factors; 

 iirst, the cattle had a cheap and succulent roughage — 

 pasture. Second, the amount of concentrated feeds used 

 •was kept down to a comparatively small figure; from 

 :2.76 to 3.31 pounds of cottonseed cake and 4.48 pounds 

 of cottonseed were fed each steer daily." 



In Lot X, one of tlie lots of common cattle, 274 pounds 

 of cake were required to make 100 pounds of gain , at 

 an expense of $4.82 per hundredweight. To feed each 

 steer in this lot all summer it cost $9.10, when the 

 feeds are valued as above. The cattle in Lot Y received 

 no cake in addition to the pasturage so it cost only 

 $2.38 to feed each one from April 23 to September 2 

 when pasturage is valued at 50 cents a month per 

 head. 



