MEAT PRODUCTION 445 



works. It is of prime importance to the feeder that his animals 

 shall have the largest possible productive capacity, but while 

 the maximum which the animal can produce is determined by 

 its breed and individual characteristics and cannot be materially 

 affected by feeding, the amount which it actually does produce 

 in any given case must depend upon the amount of material 

 supplied to it in its feed. Production may be limited by a 

 deficient feed supply, although it cannot be forced above a cer- 

 tain maximum by increasing the ration. 



522. Feed requirements. Since feed is to be looked upon 

 as a supply of raw material for the animal mechanism, it is clear 

 that the kind and amount required will depend primarily upon 

 the capacity of the animal. The young animal, with his marked 

 capacity for growth, will require relatively more of the specific 

 materials for growth, viz., protein and ash, than will the older 

 animal. The early maturing animal, with his greater rate of 

 growth, will require more, total feed per day than the one ma- 

 turing more slowly. The animal with the capacity to con- 

 sume and utilize large total amounts of feed must be given these 

 larger amounts in order that his advantage in this respect 

 may be fully utilized. 



As already pointed out, meat production is a combination of 

 growth and fattening, the latter process being superimposed 

 upon the former. The feed requirements of the meat-producing 

 animal, therefore, include in the first place the requirements for 

 normal growth, to which are added during a longer or shorter 

 time according to circumstances the requirements for the pro- 

 duction of fat. The feed requirements for these two purposes 

 have already been considered in the two previous chapters, but 

 may be conveniently recapitulated here with more particular 

 emphasis on economic relations. 



Protein requirements for meat production 



523. Relation to age. It was shown in Chapters X and XI 

 that it is only during growth that any considerable production 

 of meat in the narrower sense, i.e., of muscular tissue, takes 

 place, and likewise that the energy of growth is greatest in the 

 young animal and diminishes, at first rapidly and then more 

 and more slowly, until physiological maturity, when but a slight 



