164 ' Missouri Agricultural Report. 



put in marketable condition by being made fat. It is furthermore 

 shown that between the calf and the yearling form in the stocker 

 or feeder condition there is a very large drop in price per pound. 

 That the curve of cost from this point slowly rises through the 

 two-year-old form up to the three-year-old state, when it reaches 

 its second highest point in the life of the unf atted steer. The ani- 

 mal just before weaning time, carrying its calf fat and milk bloom, 

 looks its best, and is never so attractive in appearance again until 

 fully fattened and ready for the market. The carcass is, however, at 

 that stage watery, subject to heavy and rapid shrinkage, and re- 

 quires during the weaning, dehorning and vaccination against 

 blackleg periods expensive feeds even to maintain the normal 

 weight. There does not appear to be anything in the results of all 

 of these experiments, however, to justify the large drop in the value 

 per pound between the calf and the yearling stage when in ordi- 

 nary thin condition. It is true that the animal at this age still 

 manifests a strong tendency to grow; that this materially retards 

 the fattening process and makes the professional feeder wary of 

 the yearling. This closes to this aged animal the most import- 

 ant market, the feeder, and leaves it only in demand by the man 

 who desires to grow it still further and subsequently sell it as a 

 feeder. The man who proposes to grow this animal needs a margin 

 of profit over and above the value of the actual gains made, which 

 may account for this large decline in price over the younger ani- 

 mal and even over the same animal the following year when in its 

 two-year-old form. 



Considering the relative ease with which a two-year-old may 

 be made ready for market, justifies the paying of a somewhat 

 higher price for him in the feeder condition than the yearling 

 commands. On the other hand, there seem to be but two possible 

 explanations why the three-year-old should bring more per pound 

 as a feeder than a two-year-old, viz. : The somewhat shorter time 

 required- to fit him for market, and the slightly smaller risk in- 

 volved in handling him and in making him fat. That is to say, 

 the uniformity with which animals will fatten is directly propor- 

 tionate to its age. Or, the percentage of culls or unfatted ani- 

 mals at the end of the feeding period will be inversely proportion- 

 ate to the age. 



In the light of all the experimental data here presented, it 

 would seem, however, that the increased cost of gains on three- 

 year-olds over two-year-olds is large enough to demand that the 

 three-year-olds be bought at even less per pound than the two-year- 



