CHAPTER VIII. 

 MARKET CLASSES AND GRADES OF CATTLE. 



The large live-stock markets classify their receipts of cattle 

 into various classes and grades, depending upon the quality, 

 condition, weight, age, and sex of the animals. A market class 

 may be defined as a group of animals on the live-stock market, all 

 of which are suitable for a certain commercial use. 



There is a clear distinction between type and market class. 

 A type represents an ideal which the breeder or feeder is en- 

 deavoring to produce. Types represent only the most highly 

 desirable or profitable sorts of animals, while there are market 

 classes for all sorts of animals profitable and unprofitable from 

 the producer's standpoint. The market classification represents 

 the practical outcome of producers' attempts to reach ideals, 

 and a visit to any market will show that often they do not reach 

 them. Hence, some market classes have counterparts among 

 the types, and some have not. The latter might be termed 

 the by-products or misfits of the breeder's art. Of these there 

 is always a percentage, depending upon how difficult a task the 

 producer set for himself; the more extreme the type, the greater 

 the percentage of misfits. Most of these misfits are useful, and 

 some return a profit to the producer. 



There will always be some market classes which return a 

 maximum profit to the breeder and feeder, and these the breeder 

 will try to produce by adjusting his type accordingly and select- 

 ing animals for breeding purposes which nearest approach the 

 ideal, in other words, typical animals. The less profitable 

 market classes are filled incidentally, not through any design 

 on the part of the breeder. Some market classes are composed 

 of animals that have already served one or more purposes; having 

 outlived their usefulness, they are discarded and sent to market. 

 The market is accommodating; it provides a place for all sorts 

 of odds and ends, and hunts up a use for them. Thus, some 

 market classes persist which at first thought have no excuse 

 for being. Everything classifies somewhere. The types are 

 logically much fewer than the market classes. 



On the large live-stock markets, cattle are handled accord- 

 ing to the following classification: 



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