132 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



Lot II. Steers. Average weight, 662 pounds. 

 Ration: Ear corn, silage, hay and cottonseed meal. 



Average dai'y gain. 

 Cost of gain 



2.81 lbs. 

 2.67 cts. 



Note the excellent gains made and the very remarkably small 

 amount of feed required. The cost per pound of gain only was 

 reported in the case of lot II, which, as will be observed, was 2.67 

 cents, or less than has ever been estimated even for calves, and 

 yet these steers were from four to six years of age. 



The point is, these animals were very thin in condition, and 

 were carried through a very small part of the complete fattening 

 period, namely, 79 days, and were not fat when the experiment 

 closed. If they had been made thick fat and prime, the cost would 

 have mounted far above these figures. 



Fig. 6. A good class of two-yeai--oId.s In prime condition. 



These data are presented merely to show that age in itself 

 is not really so important a factor in the cost of gain as has been 

 commonly supposed. In other words, the condition in which the 

 animal is or the degree of fatness exerts a profound influence. 

 This is clearly shown by some observations at the Kansas Experi- 

 ment Station,* on three and one-half-year-old steers, warmed be- 

 fore the experiment began. They were fed a balanced ration of 

 corn, bran, shorts and oil meal, and the experiment lasted 182 days, 

 or six months, and cattle of this age in that time on such a ration 

 should have become thick and prime. 



♦Kansas Experiment Station, Bulletin No. .T4. 



