FARM DEPARTMENT. 217 



6th. The lesson is very emphatically taught that average native steers, 

 weighing from 1,100 to 1,300 pounds at 3 years, or often much less, cannot 

 be raised and fed with profit. Well bred steers weighing from 500 to 800 

 pounds more at the same age may be. The value of good blood for beef 

 production cannot, then, be overestimated. It, only, can, with good care and 

 skillful feeding, in these times and with the present markets, bridge the 

 margin between loss and profit for the grower and feeder. 



7th. That the quality of beef produced by a combined grain ration, in 

 which wheat bran, oats and some oil meal form the principal part, is prefer- 

 able to that produced by a corn ration exclusively. I believe these animals 

 would have had a much less percentage of meat valuable to butcher and con- 

 umer if corn had entered largely into their grain ration. 



8th. The lesson is plainly taught that early maturing breeds may be sold 

 with most profit, perhaps, at one year, if pushed from the start. 



The cost per pound of production is greatly increased with each succeeding 

 year. Certainly under most favorable conditions they should reach the limit 

 of profit at from 24 to 30 months at latest. This may be modified in ordi- 

 nary feeding by the fact that the yearling steer will need more expensive food 

 than older ones. The latter will consume more rough fodder profitably than 

 the former. 



9th. That the largest per cent of dressed to live weight does not always 

 indicate the best quality of meat, nor the most profitable carcass for the 

 dealer or consumer. So that the commonly received opinion, that the steer 

 that shrinks least in killing is the best for the butcher, must be more or less 

 modified by other conditions. 



In concluding this final report the writer desires to express his sincere 

 appreciation of the encouragement of the State Board of Agriculture, of the 

 various cattle organizations and agricultural journals that have referred to 

 our work, and to the State Legislatures which have appropriated moneys to 

 carry on these experiments, the Hatch law only having been in operation a 

 part of the last year. 



While conscious that it was an untried field in experimental work, it seemed 

 to me a very important one. Like all first essays in new fields, plan and exe- 

 cution of detail may not always have been the best. We can only say that 

 we have aimed to do and have done in the most thoroughly conscientious 

 manner, everything in connection with the experiment from beginning to 

 finish. And it is no small satisfaction to feel and know, that however some 

 breeders may have been disappointed in the results, no one has questioned 

 in the remotest degree, so far as I know, the impartiality of the test. We 

 offer this contribution to the cattle men and farmers of America, and hope 

 there may be some lessons of real value for them in these reports. 



One swallow doesn't make a summer, nor does one test prove the superi- 

 ority of any breed. 



It is only one (the first ever made) of a needed series of tests which shall 

 enable us to give the average of results, and thus ultimately lead to some- 

 thing like a demonstration. 



A prime lot of steer calves has been secured and are well started for a 

 repetition of the test. We do not, at this writing, design to carry this second 

 lot over 24 to 30 months, believing that profitable beef production means the 

 securing of heaviest weight of merchantable beef at the earliest age possible. 



Early maturity must be a prime factor in a profitable beef producer. 



