Live Stock Breeders' Association. 161 



he would need to have bought his two-year-olds for 16 cents per 

 hundred less, or to have sold them for 10 cents per hundred more, to 

 have overcome all the difference in cost of gain due to age. The aver- 

 age of all the rations for that year would have necessitated the buy- 

 ing of the two-year-olds at 24 cents per hundred less, or selling them 

 at 18 cents per hundred more. Unfortunately, the cattle were not 

 so marketed at the close of this trial as to enable us to ascertain 

 what the relative selling value of the two classes was. 



On the basis of the second trial, made in 1906, the feeder 

 using shelled corn alone would have had to buy his two-year-olds 

 15 cents per hundred lower than yearlings, or to sell them at nine 

 cents per hundred more. A glance at the table of results for this 

 trial will show that the two-year-olds fed on corn sold for 40 cents 

 per hundred more than did the yearlings so fed. In case the feeder 

 used shelled corn with a limited amount of linseed meal, on the 

 basis of the 1906 results, the yearlings and the two-year-olds might 

 have been bought at the same price and sold at the same price and 

 returned the same profit. In other words, as has already been 

 pointed out, there was in this particular lot of cattle no difference 

 whatever in the cost of gain. It will be noted that at the close of 

 the experiment Mr. Alexander estimated the yearlings fed on this 

 ration to be worth $6.75 per hundred and the two-year-olds $7.00 

 per hundred, or a difference of 25 cents per hundred in favor of 

 the older cattle, not because the older cattle had superior quality, 

 for they had not, but because they were a little thicker and harder. 

 The average of all the lots fed in 1906 showed that it would have 

 been necessary to have purchased the two-year-olds at five cents 

 per hundred less, or to have sold them at four cents per hundred 

 more, than the yearlings to have overcome the difference in cost 

 of gains made. It will be furthermore noted that Mr. Alexander 

 estimated an average difference in the selling value of these cattle 

 at the close of the experiment of 33 cents per hundred in favor 

 of the older cattle. 



It will be recalled, from the foot note to the table of results for 

 that year, that the actual price brought on the Chicago market 

 by the yearlings was $6.35 per hundred and for the two-year-olds 

 on the same day $6.85, or an actual difference of 50 cents per 

 hundred. It was conceded by all parties that the younger cattle 

 had rather the advantage in quality over the older class, but it was 

 uniformly conceded that the older cattle were in more nearly prime 

 condition. 



A-U 



