428 NUTRITION OF FARM ANIMALS 



the production obtained is plainly dependent upon three factors : 

 first, the efficiency of the mechanism ; second, the amount and 

 quality of the raw material supplied; third, the conditions 

 under which the mechanism is operated. 



2. THE ANIMAL AS A FACTOR IN MEAT PRODUCTION 



Of the three factors just mentioned, the animal may fairly 

 be said to be the one of prime importance. The success of the 

 feeder depends primarily upon the capacity of his animals to 

 convert profitably large amounts of raw materials into a 

 finished product of high quality. 



Early maturity 



504. Definition of maturity. Much stress is rightly laid 

 upon the importance of early maturity in meat production, al- 

 though the term is used in two more or less distinct senses. 



Strictly speaking, a mature animal is one which has completed 

 its growth i.e., one in which the increase of protein tissue has 

 reached its natural limit. In this sense, that one of two animals 

 which reaches this natural limit first is the earlier maturing. 

 With animals which reach substantially the same limit of size, 

 this conception of early maturity is, of course, synonymous 

 with a greater absolute rate of protein growth (460), while if the 

 latter be expressed relatively to the weight of the animal, as 

 in previous pages, the same thing is true regardless of size. 



The term early maturity, however, is used also in a quite 

 different sense, referring to the conformation of the animal rather 

 than to completed growth. Thus, if a steer at 22 months has 

 attained the typical beef form and reached sufficient size to 

 meet the demands of the market, he is said to be mature. Ob- 

 viously, this does not mean that he has completed his growth, 

 but simply that he has made sufficient growth to furnish market- 

 able meat. This conception of maturity, in other words, is 

 commmercial rather than physiological. It is important to 

 note, however, that it involves a physiological element. A 

 certain size of carcass as well as a certain conformation is de- 

 manded, and to reach this at an early age almost necessarily 

 implies a greater rate of growth, whether measured physiologi- 



