Live Stock Breeders* Association. 159 



in 1906 the difference is even more striking, as follows : 



Yearlings 



Two-year olds . 



2.07 pounds. 

 2.70 



It is believed that this difference was due primarily to the 

 condition of the animals when the feeding trial began. As has 

 already been made clear, the yearlings had been full fed for a con- 

 siderable time before the experiments proper began, whereas the 

 two-year-olds had been merely roughed, and were in thin condition. 

 Thus they entered this experiment with a large appetite and with 

 the maximum capacity for gain and the minimum of maintenance 

 cost per steer in proportion to their appetite. 



Expressing the results in the total gain made per steer during 

 the experiment, the time in each case being the same, it will be* 

 noted that in 1904 the yearlings gained, on an average, 456 pounds, 

 whereas the two-year-olds gained 526 pounds, or 70 pounds per 

 head more in the same length of time, both being full fed. In 

 1906 the total gain per steer for the yearlings was 435 pounds, 

 while for the two-year-olds it was 568 pounds, or 133 pounds more 

 for the season. It will be recalled that in this year the two-year- 

 olds were a little more than half fed during the first two months 

 of the experiment, and were gotten on full feed toward the end of 

 June. 



The average of the two years' trials for all rations, and in- 

 volving 113 cattle, was 446 pounds of gain for the season for the 

 yearlings and 547 pounds for the two-year-olds, or a difference of 

 101 pounds. 



Concerning the cost of gains, the student of these tables will 

 have already noted that the difference between the yearlings and 

 the two-year-olds is smaller than it was in the Canadian and the 

 Kansas experiments already referred to. For example, in 1904, 

 the maximum difference in the cost per hundred pounds of gain 

 in favor of the yearlings was 57 cents with the shelled corn lot^ 

 and the minimum difference was 27 cents per hundred with the 

 corn and linseed meal lot. The average of all lots for that year 

 was 44 cents per hundred. In 1906 the maximum difference was 

 24 cents per hundred, and was again shown by the shelled corn 

 lot, and the minimum difference was 0, which was again the corn 

 and linseed lot. The average of all lots for that year was 10 cents 

 per hundred. 



The average for both years, and including the 113 cattle fed, 

 was only 27 cents per hundred. 



