Live Stock Breeders' Association. 133 



Average daily gain, 2.4 pounds ; grain required for a pound of 

 gain for the entire experiment, 10.0 pounds. 



It is likely that on calves or yearlings with such a ration the 

 grain required for a pound of gain would have been between seven 

 and eight pounds, so that the age does affect the cost of gain. 



But of great interest in showing condition of the animal upon 

 cost of gain, note : 



First 56 days they required only 7.3 pounds of food for a 

 pound of gain. 



First 84 days they required only 8.07 pounds of food for a 

 pound of gain. 



First 112 days they required only 9.01 pounds of food for a 

 pound of gain. 



First 140 days they required only 9.27 pounds of food for a 

 pound of gain. 



For the entire 182 days they required only 10.00 pounds of 

 food for a pound of gain. 



Note how the cost increases as the animal becomes fat. In 

 former times this increase, due to fatness, has been invariably at- 

 tributed to increase in age. In ordinary cases the cost does not 

 increase so uniformly as the fattening process proceeds, as is 

 shown in this particular case, for the reason that the season in a 

 six months' period changes very materially, and may have the 

 effect of accentuating this upward tendency in case an unfavorable 

 time of year is hit upon for the finishing process, or this tendency 

 may be partially, at least, offset when the finishing period falls in 

 the cool, crisp autumn weather. But the weather being the same, 

 the law seems to hold that as the animal increases in fatness the 

 rate of gain diminishes and the cost of gain increases. 



In addition to this increase in cost, due to fatness, there is, as has 

 already been stated, an increase which appears to be due to thfe 

 age of the animal, or, perhaps, more correctly speaking, due, prin- 

 cipally, to the use to which the steer puts the feed, or the kind of gain 

 he makes. When making sappy tissue, as in the case of the young 

 animal, it is made cheaply; in making hard fat, as in the case of the 

 older animal, it is more expensive. 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF MAKING RELIABLE COMPARISONS. 



It is evident that the problem is a complicated one, and that 

 the difficulties in making reliable comparisons of the cost and value 

 of production on cattle of different ages are both numerous and 



