Live Stock Breeders' Association. 131 



experiments the young animals were not made fat, while the older 

 animals were, and thus in the case of the young animals really the 

 expensive part of the feeding process was avoided. I shall speak 

 more in detail concerning this matter later. The point is, that the 

 combined influence of age and of fatness was by these earlier ex- 

 perimenters ascribed to age alone, with the result that such data 

 as the following were freely use in support of the baby beef con- 

 tention.* 



Cost per hundred pounds of gain up to 12 months of age. 

 " " " " " " between 12 and 24 mo. 



" " " " " " between 24 and 36 mo . 



i 4.03 



7.98 



12.64 



In this connection it has always been maintained that older 

 cattle could not be induced to make rapid gains, and that a gain 

 of a pound and a half a day was a fair record for cattle two and 

 a half years old and over, and that the young animals, therefore, 

 not only made economical but rapid gains. This was tantamount 

 to saying that the young animal could be finished in less time, or 

 with a shorter feeding period, than the older animal, and that this 

 wholly unwarranted conclusion was read into the figures by many 

 inexperienced writers and advocates of this system of beef pro- 

 duction. 



In contrast with these figures some results obtained at the Texas 

 Experiment Station* with range steers, ranging from four to six 

 years old, and very thin in condition, should be considered. They 

 were well warmed, i. e., they were gotten well accustomed to their 

 feed before the experiment began, so that no part of this gain could 

 be attributed to what is ordinarily called fill. The experiment ran 

 through 79 days, and the results are as follows : 



Lot I. Ten steers. Average weight, 671 pounds. 



Ration: Cottonseed meal, silage and cottonseed hulls. 



Pounds. 



Average daily gain 



Grain per lb. gain 



Silage per lb. gain 



C. S. Hulls per lb. gain. 



3.63 

 1.64 

 6.00 

 3.70 



♦Chicago Stock Show results for 1882. Henry's " Feeds and Feeding," page 369. 

 *Texas Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 10. 



