Plan of the Experiment 367 



by l.ot V was during the lime that two steers in this lot were off feed. 

 These were the only two steers in the experiment that were not al- 

 ways read>- to eat their feed. The proportion of loss of silage is much 

 less than that of refused alfalfa hay. Lot V had 3 percent of the 

 silage weighed back; Lot Till percent; and Lots IT, IV, and VI each 

 less than 1 percent. Here again it is believed that if the refused silage 

 in the five lots had been given the steers in Lot I that received no 

 silage, they would have made good use of it. Since these amounts 

 of feed are ordinarily wasted in practical feeding, and the steers selec- 

 ted the best of the feed, leaving the inferior portions, the steers were 

 charged with all the refused feeds in calculating the costs. 



DURATION 



The steers w^ere placed in the feed lot on January 9, 1920, and the 

 test was completed after the cattle had been on feed 77 days ending 

 March 25. At this time, an offer of 11 cents per pound live weight, 

 deducting 4 percent shrinkage from the filled weight was accepted. 

 This was an extremely satisfactory price, considering the market at 

 that time. During Januarv and February the outlook for higher 

 prices was especially favorable. February 20 a local buyer offered 

 12 cents a pound for the animals for delivery April 1. This was a 

 good price and would have allowed a profit on the feeding operations. 

 Other feeders in the district had been offered 13 cents a pound for 

 similar steers to be delivered April 1. Shortly after this time Kansas 

 City packers began shipping dressed beef to the Salt River Valley. 

 This intimidated the local butchers, as the Kansas City beef was 

 placed on the market at a lower price than the cost of beef from home 

 fed cattle. Towards the first of April the Federal Government sold 

 large quantities of frozen beef that had been in storage two years. 

 Los Angeles, one of the most promising markets for cattle fed in the 

 Southwest, purchased large quantities of this frozen beef at very low 

 prices. Another contributing factor to the drop in prices of finished 

 cattle resulted from the desert range being unusually good, and the. 

 cattle maintained on these ranges were sufficiently fat for butchers 

 as early as the middle of April. With all -these contributing factors, 

 as well as a depressed market in Denver and Kansas City, we felt 

 extremely fortunate in being able to secure 11 cents a pound for the 

 steers. They were purchased by Cowden and Babbitt, and shipped 

 to Flagstaff for local consumption. 



A careful estimate was made of the value of the steers in the differ- 



