258 THE BREEDING OF ANIMALS 



P. F. Trowbridge. 1 These investigators fed a beef steer 

 from the age of three months to thirty-eight months old. 

 From three to twelve months of age the animal was fed 

 on a maintenance ration (Plate XXI). An attempt was 

 made to feed the young calf in such a way that it would 

 neither gain nor lose in live weight. At the beginning of 

 the period (three months old) (Plate XXI, upper left) 

 the animal weighed 175 pounds; at twelve months 

 (Plate XXI, upper right) the animal weighed 212 pounds. 

 Another animal similar in every way at the beginning 

 was fed a full ration of nutritious feed. The latter 

 animal increased in weight from 200 pounds at four 

 months (see Plate IX) to 875 pounds at 336 days of 

 age (Plate VIII, upper). The animal fed on a sparse 

 ration continued to increase in height, length of body, 

 size of bone, and other skeletal measurements but lost 

 constantly in fat and gradually became leaner and thinner. 

 At the end of the twelve months the steer was much 

 emaciated and showed symptoms of starvation. From 

 the standpoint of the practical feeder, the animal was 

 clearly stunted in its growth, and in the opinion of many 

 breeders he had lost very greatly in his capacity to gain 

 in live weight and to do so on what would be regarded as 

 a normal amount of food. In other words, his economic 

 value for the production of beef was very greatly dimin- 

 ished. After twelve months the animal was given a 

 gradually increasing amount of nutritious food until 

 he was consuming a normal ration. The animal rapidly 

 improved in condition and at twenty-four months (Plate 

 XXII) had reached a total weight of 1055 pounds, a total 

 gain of 842 pounds in twelve months. This gain was not 

 expensive in that a large amount of feed was required to 



1 Missouri Experiment Station, unpublished data. 



