1/6 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



corn and gluten meal was less, 2.23 pounds with the yearlings and 

 2.06 pounds with the two-year olds. The amount of corn required 

 was always less with the yearlings. 



This was an experiment on summer feeding. Three pounds of 

 supplement was fed daily in each case, that is, three pounds of linseed 

 meal, cotton seed meal and gluten feed. The amount of corn varied 

 as the appetite of the animals increased. They were fed as much as 

 20 pounds of com during the close of the period. 



The relative cost is a question that is almost idle to talk about, 

 as is also the profit that is to be secured because prices of feed and 

 cattle continually vary; but the daily gain on these different feeds 

 under these conditions would remain about the same, and the amount 

 of feed required will remain the same so long as the conditions are 

 similar. These were good cattle — selected cattle, but they were 

 selected in both cases, in the yearling lots and the two-year olds. 

 The two-year olds sold for $7.60. "We have not sold the yearlings 

 yet. This two-year old lot brought the highest price in the Chicago 

 market, with one exception, during the entire year of 1904. They were 

 March and April calves. They were sold in December when they were 

 two years old. 



Here is my point, and it has a good deal of bearing upon this and 

 the other question that I insisted upon in the beginning; it is not only 

 a question of producing gain cheaply, it is a question of getting a good 

 finish at the right time to sell. The yearlings we have ready to sell 

 after the two-year olds, but if we had sold them at the same time, we 

 would have had to be satisfied with a less price per pound. 



There is another question involved, if you consider the profits 

 from cattle feeding, besides this question I have discussed, and I am 

 inclined to suggest this point because it is of vital importance to the 

 man who is making money from cattle feeding. The experiment sta- 

 tion men like to find these things out, though they are not primarily 

 interested in maTcing money from every experiment, they are in- 

 terested in finding out which experiment is most profitable. If you 

 buy a thousand pound two-year-old at 4 cents a pound, you pay $40. 

 If you feed'him six months and put on two pounds a day, he will gain 

 360 pounds. He will then weigh 1,360 pounds, and if you sell him 

 for six cents a pound — you sell him for $81.60. You increased the 

 value of this original thousand pounds two cents per pound in the 

 finishing process and thus make $20. You receive not only the value 

 of this 360 pounds that you put on, which amounts at six cents a 

 pound to $21.60, l)ut you also get your increased value on the thou- 



