FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 355 



The average amount of feed consumed by each was as follows: 2,276 

 iJOiuKls of corn meal, worth $14.80; 613.5 pounds of oil meal, worth $6.90; 

 ;514 ;; pounds of wheat bran, worth, $2.04; 878,9 pounds of oats, worth 

 $8.23; forty pounds of ground wheat, worth 40c; 100 pounds of sugar 

 beets, worth twenty-five cents. Total grain, 4,222.7 pounds, worth $32.62. 



We gave Challenger no condimental stock food, prepared sugar or 

 cooked feed. 



His total cost to the university, not including freight and labor, foots 

 up to $105.72. Had he sold for only six and one-quarter cents per pound 

 in ('hicago he would have paid out. As it was he won $430 in prize 

 money and sold for twenty-six cents per pound, bringing in all $879.80. 



No grand champion was ever produced without being well fed. On 

 the other hand, not all well-fed animals can ever hope to become cham- 

 pions. There must first be that conformation of body and inherent as- 

 similative powers which make possible a rapid formation of flesh and a 

 flesh placed evenly and thickly over those parts which command the 

 highest prices. Barring a little lightness of flank, Challenger was excel- 

 lent in conformation even in his 1,300-pound form. Had he not been 

 good in conformation, with a hide showing every indication of thrift, he 

 w^ould not have been taken from the herd of the original owners and 

 shipped some distance to the university farm, the sole occupant of a 

 freight car. 



He has been called a scrub, which some people have used as an argu- 

 ment against good breeding. This is an injustice to Challenger and the 

 breeding interests of the country. Challenger was not a pure-bred, but 

 he possessed not less than 75 per cent of the blood of two most excellent 

 beef breeds. His mother was a Shorthorn cow with enough Holstein 

 blood to give her a blue-white color. 'It does not take much for that. 

 She is quite ordinary in appearance. Challenger's sire was a registered 

 Hereford bull of unusual individual merit. Challenger was a powerful 

 example of what good pure-bred sires can do toward grading up common 

 stock. This is the real object of all pure-bred breeding — the production 

 of sires for the common stock of the country. The pure-bred is far more 

 prepotent in transmitting characters to offspring than is the animal of 

 mixed breeding. The little Holstein blood in Challenger's veins mani- 

 fested itself in the blue tinge to his coat and his w^onderful assimilative 

 pow^ers. He had many characters of the Angus in his well-rounded hips 

 and evenly-curved back, but no trace of Angus breeding can be found. 

 His horns were sawed off when young. 



Challenger was sold to Dunning &. Stevens, East Buffalo, N. Y. He 

 was later purchased by Mr. Klinck. a meat dealer in Buffalo, who slaugh- 

 tered him for exhibition. December 20. and afterwards presented him to 

 the Buffalo Orphans' Asylum. 



Challenger dressed 1,135 pounds of meat, or 65.6 per cent of his live 

 weight. A letter from Dunning & Stevens states: "A portion of all four 

 leg joints and tail were removed with the hide by the taxidermist. Our 

 experts here think with a fair weighing test he would have made 68 to 70 

 per cent of beef. He made a magnificent carcass of beef, by far the best 



