TYPES AND MARKET CLASSES OF LIVE STOCK 



91 



In three years work, including three trials, the Indiana 

 Experiment Station found that when feed prices were such that 

 it cost $7.74 to produce 100 pounds of gain on baby beeves, it 

 cost $9.09 to make the same gain on yearlings, and $9.37 on 

 two-year-olds. 



Steer and Heifer Beef. 



The heading of this chapter, "Fashions in Market Cattle," 

 implies that the demands of the cattle market are subject to 

 change. The truth of this has been shown by the preceding 

 discussion of the trend away from the old-time, heavy, matured 



Fig. 19. Prime Fat Heifer. 



beeves, and toward the finishing of younger cattle. The word, 

 "fashions," also implies that the market indulges in some prac- 

 tices that are not entirely utilitarian and practical, but are more 

 or less fanciful and whimsical. That this is true will be shown 

 by a consideration of the cattle market's discrimination against 

 fat heifers as compared with fat steers. When the heifer is 

 well fed, she is consigned to a lower class than a steer of the 

 same breeding, same fatness, same quality, same age and form. 

 In some countries, heifers outsell steers for beef purposes. In 

 this country there is discrimination in price against heifers on 

 the market, and for that reason heifers are rarely as well fed as 

 steers. 



