PROGRESSIVE BEEF CATTLE RAISING 



PARTX 



Cattle Types 



While finished cattle are classed 

 How Type Is and graded on the market as indicated 

 Determined in the foregoing paragraphs, there are 

 distinct differences in type between 

 choice feeders and choice killing steers. The factors that 

 determine whether an animal shall be classed as a beef 

 steer and graded choice include high dressing percent, 

 high proportion of valuable cuts, ability to produce a 

 No. i carcass and a size suitable to produce retail cuts 

 most readily marketable. The price paid for live animals 

 is based on these points entirely. On the other hand when 

 a feeder buys a steer he is looking for the points that will 

 indicate profitable utilization of his feed. A steer of this 

 sort has a large rugged frame, a strong chest and constitu- 

 tion, enough depth to indicate a strong feeding capacity, 

 and a loose, mellow, sappy hide that provides a vigorous 

 circulation and a high degree of health. It will be noted 

 that none of the points making the animal profitable as a 

 feeder have any relation to the efficiency with which the 

 steer cuts out, hence the type suitable both to the trade 

 and the feeder is a compromise. This is the type which 

 has come to recognition in the big fat stock shows of 

 England and America, and in its ultimate development 

 provides the show yard champions. The usual champion 

 steer is fed to a flesh unprofitable to the feeder from a 

 market standpoint, since the final gains of such an animal 

 are very costly and there is ordinarily too much fat to 

 permit the animal to be cut up profitably by the butcher. 

 It therefore happens that many times steers gaining 

 high honors in a show are considered less valuable by 

 practical feeders and sell for less on the beef markets than 

 animals of lower show rank. 



Page Sixty-eight 



