FEEDING BEEF CATTLE 261 



Cattle Markets. The largest central cattle markets in the 

 country were located in 1910 as follows: Chicago (over 3,000,000 

 cattle received during the year), Kansas City (2,250,000), Omaha 

 and St. Louis (both about 1,250,000), Fort Worth, Texas, New 

 York, and St. Joseph, Mo. (decreasing, in the order given, from 

 1,000,000 to 500,000). Other important cattle markets are St. 

 Paul, Sioux City, Denver, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Buffalo, etc. 

 The relative importance of these markets will doubtless change with 

 the further development of our cattle industry, since cattle markets 

 follow in the wake of the producing areas; western cattle markets 

 have developed rapidly during the last few decades, while the 

 eastern markets have in general declined. 7 



Shrinkage of Cattle. When cattle are sold a certain deduction 

 is generally made for the " shrink " in weight between the place 

 where sold and marketed. This allows for the loss in weight that 

 occurs during transportation, and varies according to the distance 

 travelled and methods of transportation, as well. as the system of 

 feeding and handling of the cattle prior to shipping. The shrinkage 

 is generally figured at 3 to 4 per cent. On a 1000-pound steer this 

 will mean a deduction of 30 or 40 pounds for which no pay is 

 received. The United States Department of Agriculture, in recent 

 investigations of the shrinkage in weight of beef cattle in transit, 8 

 made careful studies of the various factors that influence the shrink- 

 age. It was found that the shrinkage of range cattle in transit 

 over 70 hours during a normal year is from 5 to 6 per cent of their 

 live weight. If they are in transit 36 hours or less, the shrinkage 

 will range from 3 to 4 per cent of their live weight. The shrinkage 

 of fed cattle does not differ greatly from that of range cattle for 

 equal periods of time. It varied from about 3 per cent with all of 

 the silage-fed cattle and 4.2 per cent with the corn-fed cattle when 

 both classes of these animals were in transit for less than 36 hours, to 

 5.4 per cent for the pulp-fed cattle which were in transit from 60 

 to 120 hours. 



The Spread or Margin. The profit in beef raising depends 

 not only on the gains made by steers during fattening period, but 

 fully as much on the price at which the steers are bought and sold. 

 The difference in the latter two figures is known as " spread " or 

 "margin"; this is given per hundredweight or pound. If feed- 

 ing cattle are bought at, say, 6 cents a pound and sold at the end 

 of the fattening period at 7 cents, there is a margin of 1 cent per 



7 Illinois Circular 169. 8 Bulletin 25. 



