LECTURE XXXII. 



POINTS TO BE OBSERVED IN THE BUYING AND 

 SELECTING OF STEERS FOR THE FEED LOT. 



Steers are put into the feed lot, fed and cared for with 

 the hope of obtaining for them at selling time a price that 

 will enable the feeder to realize a fair profit. After paying 

 for his steers, their feed, and any other direct expense con- 

 nected with them, he should still have left a margin that 

 would pay him at least 10%, and better 20%, on his invest- 

 ment. It often happens that this profit is not forthcoming 

 when everything is counted in on both sides of the account, 

 and often, too often in fact, instead of a profit to the feeder 

 there is a loss. This is the discouraging part of cattle feed- 

 ing. When much time and labor have been spent in buying 

 and bringing the cattle home, in gathering and storing the 

 feed, in caring for and feeding them, there is not much 

 encouragement when the feeder finds that instead of a gain, 

 he has sustained a direct loss on all his operations. 



The question naturally arises: Is there anything which 

 the feeder can do to influence the amount of profit which 

 will accrue to his labor? There is certainly something for 

 him to do, and that is to exercise care and judgment in the 

 buying and selecting of the steers he puts into his feed lots. 

 No matter what skill is possessed by the feeder, unless the 

 animals placed under his care have been bought right, and 

 unless they have been carefully and wisely selected, his 

 efforts will be fruitless so far as the matter of profit is con- 

 cerned. Let us see first from what source or sources the 

 profits in steer feeding may come, and then we shall con- 

 sider the part which the buyer is responsible for. 



Profit in steer feeding may come: first, from the con- 

 version of cheap raw materials, such as roughage in the 

 form of hay, corn stalks, and straw; grains, such as corn, 

 oats, peas, bran; or concentrates, such as oil meal, gluten 

 feed and blood meal, into high priced cuts of meat. In 

 the second place by the addition of extra fat and flesh we 



