Live StocJc Breeders' Association. 147 



equally cheap, according to the Ottawa experiments, at $4.58 per 

 hundred, and according to the Kansas experiment, at $4.53, pro- 

 vided, of course, that both classes of cattle brought the same price 

 on the market when finished. Or, assuming for the moment that 

 the buying price per pound on the two classes of cattle was the 

 same, it would have been necessary to have sold the yearlings 32 

 cents per hundred higher, on the basis of the Ottawa experiments, 

 or 27 cents per hundred higher, on the basis of the Kansas experi- 

 ment, to have offset the difference in cost of gain. This means 

 that with calves bringing $5.00 per hundred, the Ottawa yearlings 

 would have had to bring $5.32 per hundred. In but two of the five 

 years covered by the Ottawa experiments is the selling price of 

 the calves given in the published reports. In one of these years 

 (1901) the yearlings brought 27 cents per hundred more than did 

 the calves, and in 1902 they brought 67 cents per hundred more, 

 making an average of 47 cents, or more than enough to offset the 

 whole difference in the cost of gain. 



The 20 yearlings fed in the experiment at the Kansas Station 

 brought on the Kansas City market 30 cents per hundred more 

 than did the 19 calves used, both lots being sold on the same day 

 and in direct competition, one with the other. This is also slightly 

 more than was necessary to fully offset the excess in cost of gains. 



CALVES AND TWO-YEAR-OLDS CONTRASTED. 



As between calves and two-year-olds, the cost of gain shows 

 even a wider variation than between calves and yearlings. In one 

 season (1904) the cost of gain on two-year-olds was 18 cents per 

 hundred less than that required for calves, whereas the maximum 

 difference of the other was shown in the season of 1901, when 

 the cost for calves was $2.47 per hundred less than for two-year- 

 olds, or an average for all trials of $1.30 per hundred. This means 

 that it cost all the way from minus 60 cents up to $8.20 per head 

 more to make the gain required to fit the steer for market on the two- 

 year-old animals than on the calf, the average difference being $4.18. 



This would make it necessary to have an excess buying margin 

 of 43 cents per hundred on two-year-olds, or an excess selling 

 margin of 33 cents per hundred. 



Again assuming that calves cost in the fall $5.00 per hundred, 

 the feeder would have to buy the two-year-olds at $4.56 ; or, if the 

 calves, when finished, brought $5.00 per hundred, the two-year-olds 

 should sell at $5.33, in order to exactly overcome the difference 

 in cost necessary to prepare them for market. It should be under- 



