LECTURE XXXVI. 



PREPARATION OF CATTLE FOR MARKET. 



In preparing cattle for shipping every precaution and the 

 greatest care should be exercised by the feeder or shipper 

 so that the animals will reach the market in prime condition. 



If the steers are being finished on grass and grain, they 

 should be taken off the pasture and put in a dry lot at least 

 twenty-four hours, or better still forty-eight hours, before 

 shipping, and fed only half their usual allowance of grain, 

 with all the hay they will eat. In some cases it is advisable 

 to feed no grain, thus getting the animals to eat considerable 

 bulky food, such as hay. The whole secret, if there is such 

 a thing, of shipping cattle successfully, is to get them full of 

 dry food just previous to the time they are placed on the 

 cars and market. That is, the less moisture the food con- 

 tains in proportion to dry material, the better, because as a 

 rule a steer that is largely filled with water has a tendency 

 to scour, and thus show up gaunt and bad on the market. 

 Some unscrupulous shippers have a custom of salting their 

 cattle, so that they drink large amounts of water and fill up 

 on the same. This is something that is usually very detri- 

 mental to the sale of the cattle. It is useless for the shipper 

 to think he can fool the buyer by such a practice. By feed- 

 ing a large quantity of salt one is apt to bring on a fevered 

 condition in the animal's stomach or digestive organs, thus 

 causing it to drink an unnatural amount of water, which in 

 turn causes a looseness of the bowels and a surprising shrink- 

 age. 



When the cattle are taken off pasture they should be put 

 in as dry a yard as possible, so that they may keep tolerably 

 clean. Do not leave the ordering of the car until the last 

 minute, but rather order it so that it can be properly bedded 

 and a good supply of hay put in its racks. Straw, of course, 

 makes the best kind of bedding one can use; however, the 

 most essential thing is that of supplying plenty of whatever 



