Live Stock Breeders' Association. 



201 



ence between pork-producing machines and beef-producing ma- 

 chines; and similarly a wide difference in the ability of the beef 

 animal to make a pound of beef from the corn fed as compared 

 with the mutton animal. There is likewise a very wide ditference 

 between the ability of the beef animal to make a pound of beef 

 and of the hog to make a pound of pork from the same amount of 

 feed ; and between the hog to make a pound of pork and the mutton 

 animal to make a pound of mutton. 



I have, with the assistance of one of my graduate students 

 (Mr. C. G. Starr) in animal husbandry, studied the actual amounts 

 of grain required to make a pound of beef or a pound of pork or a 

 pound of mutton, under the conditions existing in the middle west. 

 That is to say, the problem of feeding is this: To feed the raw 

 products which we produce on the farm long enough and in the 

 right way, so the animals to which it is fed will in time become 

 fat or finished — and the best and cheapest way to accomplish this 

 result. Of course, we must feed them until they arrive at a cer- 

 tain degree of fatness. With cattle this time varies from three to 

 six and even twelve months. In the case of hogs, this time is still 

 more variable. In the case of mutton sheep, I suppose the average 

 time for finishing a sheep in the winter season is about three 

 months, this being more or less dependent upon the condition of 

 the sheep at the beginning of their feeding. 



The experiment stations of the United States have conducted 

 hundreds of experiments in cattle feeding, hog feeding and sheep 

 feeding, and have, as a result of this large amount of work, arrived 

 at certain conclusions as to the amount of feed required to pro- 

 duce these different kinds of meat, and in a chart which I shall 

 show you I have tried to collect the statistics as they are shown 

 by these experiments, comparing the cost of feed in producing beef, 

 pork and mutton : 



TABLE I— GRAIN REQUIRED FOR 100 POUNDS GAIN— DRY LOT. 



