Live Stock Breeders' Association. 127 



feeders of the corn belt are not yet making baby beef. There are 

 three important reasons why this is so to be briefly considered in this 

 connection. 



First, the cattle feeder is, as a rule, not a cattle raiser. At 

 any rate, he raises only a small portion of the cattle he feeds. The 

 cattle raiser, on the other hand, is, as a rule, not a cattle feeder, 

 seldom even feeding those of his own raising. The raising of 

 cattle and the fitting of them for market are two separate and 

 independent operations, conducted, as a rule, by two different 

 men, each operating independently of the other, and the one not 

 especially interested in the scope or outcome of the other's opera- 

 tions. The cattle feeder is interested in the cattle raiser only to 

 the extent of having him supply him with animals of the proper 

 quality and at such price as will enable him to fit them for market 

 with profit. 



Under the conditions of the feeder and stocker market that 

 have prevailed in recent years, at least, the younger animal in 

 an unfinished condition sells for enough more per pound to fully 

 counterbalance any advantage it may possess in the cost required 

 to make it fat. Or, to state it differently, the older animals may 

 be bought for enough less per pound to overcome the excess cost 

 required to finish them for market. Or, in feeders' parlance, the 

 margin of profit in older cattle is greater than in younger animals. 

 This may be illustrated by statistics furnished the writer by a 

 number of experienced feeders in Central Missouri, whom he has 

 interviewed recently on this point. 



RELATION OF AGE TO THE COST OF FEEDERS. 



Taking calves of a quality that in the fall, say October 1st, 

 would be worth 5 cents a pound, weighing from 350 to 500 pounds, 

 cattle of the different ages could be bought for about the following 

 prices, one year with another: 



Yearlings, $3.75 per hundred. 



Two-year-olds, $4.00 per hundred. 



Three-year-olds, $4.25 per hundred. 



These same cattle next spring would stand the feeder, in the 

 judgment of these men, on the basis of the same market as in the 

 fall, as follows : 



Yearlings (which are the calves referred to in the above 

 table), $5.00 per hundred. 



Two-year-olds, $4.50 per hundred. 



