148 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



stood, of course, that this is on the assumption that the feeder will 

 buy his cattle, and does not take into consideration any of the dif- 

 ference in cost required to raise the calves in the one case up to 

 six months of age and the others to the age of two years. 



The difference in the selling price of the calves and two-year- 

 olds fed in the Ottawa experiments can only be determined in two 

 trials, inasmuch as the selling price was reported for calves only 

 in these two seasons. On the basis of these two, in the season of 

 1901 the calves brought $4.50 per hundred, and the two-year-olds 

 brought $5.00 per hundred, or 50 cents more than the calves. In 

 the season of 1902 the calves brought $5.50 per hundred, whereas 

 the two-year-olds brought $6.17, making a difference of 67 cents 

 per hundred, or an average difference for the two years of 58 cents. 

 It will be observed that, according to our calculations above, a 

 margin of only 33 cents was required to compensate for extra cost 

 of gain on the older cattle. 



On the basis of the Kansas results, the two-year-olds cost $1.43 

 per hundred more than the calves, or $5.97 per steer. To offset 

 this it would have been necessary to have had an excess buying 

 margin on the two-year-olds of 73 cents per hundred, or a selling 

 margin of 48 cents per hundred to have fully equalized this differ- 

 ence in cost. As a matter of fact, the 19 calves used in this experi- 

 ment sold on the Kansas City market, as has already been said, 

 for $4.25 per hundred, while the 20 two-year-olds sold for $4.70 

 per hundred, making a difference of 45 cents in favor of the older 

 cattle, or lacking three cents per hundred to fully offset the in- 

 creased cost of gain. 



CALVES AND THREE-YEAR-OLDS CONTRASTED. 



Here the variation in cost in different years in the Ottawa 

 experiments is likewise great and shows an extreme range of from 

 74 cents per hundred more for gains made on three-year-olds than 

 on calves in 1904, to $3.13 per hundred, in 1901. The average 

 difference in all the Canadian trials is $2.08 per hundred, or $6.69 

 per head in favor of the calves. 



In order to overcome this excess in cost, it would be necessary 

 to buy the three-year-olds for 53 cents per hundred less than the 

 calves, or to sell them for 34^ cents more. Thus with calves at 

 $5.00 per hundred in the fall, the three-year-olds would be, accord- 

 ing to these experiments, equally cheap, considered on the basis 

 of the cost of gain alone, at $4.47 per hundred. Or, if the calves 

 brought $5.00 per hundred on the market, it would have been 



