146 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



I liave figured these factors out for each class of cattle in each 

 of the foregoing experiments, and the results are clearly set forth 

 in the preceding tables. This phase of the tabular data, already 

 presented, will bear the most careful study of the feeder and stu- 

 dent of beef production. These tables show : 



That the increased cost due to age is most rapid during the 

 first eighteen months of the life of the animal. 



That after that point, while the cost increases, it mounts less 

 rapidly than in the earlier life of the animal. 



This is perhaps more clearly revealed by the Ottawa experi- 

 ments, where the average of all the trials showed that the increased 

 cost of 



Yearlings over calves was $1 . 25 per hundred pounds. 



Two-year-olds over yearlings 31 " 



Three-year-olds over two year olds . . , 74 „ " " 



INCREASED BUYING MARGIN REQUIRED TO OVERCOME DIFFERENCE IN 



COST OF GAINS DUE TO AGE. 



Calves and yearlings contrasted. — In the Ottawa experiments 

 the difference in cost of gain on calves and yearlings varied all the 

 way from 20 cents per hundred, in 1903, to $2.53 per hundred, in 

 1901. The average difference between these two classes of animals 

 for all trials was $1.23 per hundred. On the basis of the actual 

 gains made by these cattle, this difference in cost per hundred 

 would make a difference of 60 cents per head in the one case and of 

 $7.67 in the other, or an average difference for all trials of $3.76 

 per head for the entire fattening period. This figure is obtained 

 by applying the excess in cost per hundred of gain on the yearlings 

 to the actual number of pounds gained by them during the experi- 

 ment. 



The results of the one trial at the Kansas Experiment Station 

 showed a difference of 63 cents per hundred in the cost of gain 

 between calves and yearlings, which means, on the basis of the gains 

 made by them, a difference of $2.69 per head. 



To overcome this excess, taking the average weight of the cat- 

 tle used in the Ottawa experiments, it would have been necessary 

 to have bought the yearlings at 42 cents per hundred less than the 

 calves. 



In the case of the Kansas trial, it would have been necessary 

 to have bought the yearlings 47 cents per hundred cheaper. 



In other words, on the assumption that the calves would cost 

 in the fall $5.00 per hundred, the yearlings would have been 



