Live Stock Breeders' Association. 153 



risk from failure to fatten, from loss due to dehorning or vaccina- 

 tion against blackleg, and so forth, and so on. 



Attention has already been called to the fact that this is not 

 a fair test of the baby beef question, because the intelligent feeder 

 v/ill not send his younger animals to market in the unfinished con- 

 dition that these younger animals were, but will feed them until 

 they reach as high a selling price per hundred pounds as the older 

 cattle. In that case, however, as will be very strikingly shown by 

 the Missouri results, the difference in the cost of gains between 

 younger and older cattle is very much reduced, because in that 

 case we have only the manifestation of the influence of age, whereas 

 in the experiments in Canada and Kansas, as just cited, we have 

 the combined influence of age and condition. This phase of it, 

 however, will be discussed more in detail in connection with tho 

 Missouri results which are to be presented. 



MISSOURI RESULTS. 



(This is a part of a series of experiments to ascertain the feeding value of 

 different forage plants, carried on by the Missouri Experiment Station, in co-opera- 

 tion witli the Bureau of Plant Industry of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, and under the management and direction of Professor F. B. Mumford, 

 Professor of Animal Husbandry.) 



As has already been stated, in the feeding trials conducted at 

 the Missouri Station an attempt was made to eliminate any dif- 

 ference in condition of the animals of different ages, by feeding 

 the younger animals a longer period of time, or by feeding all 

 classes of animals until they were prime. To do this we had 

 choice of two methods, viz. : 



To begin all of the cattle at the same time, which would neces- 

 sitate the finishing of them at different times, and the marketing 

 of them at periods somewhat remote one from the other, so that 

 the selling price could not be accurately gauged. 



The other plan was to begin the older cattle enough later in 

 the season, so that they and the younger cattle would be finished 

 for market together. This had the advantage of enabling us to 

 market the cattle at the same time, but had the disadvantage of 

 having the earlier feeding period of the younger cattle extend back 

 into a season of the year that is less favorable for making gains 

 than that of the main experiment. Throwing the records of the 

 feeding period of this time of year out of consideration entirely, 

 and considering only the results during the period when the older 

 cattle, as well as the younger cattle, were on full feed, introduces 

 an error, inasmuch as the condition of the two classes of cattle is 

 somewhat different at the beginning of the test. Inasmuch, how^ 



