394 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



The more comfortable the weather is, the less will 

 animals lose in transit. Where they must be driven several 

 miles to the shipping point the character of the weather is 

 of much moment. If it is warm, the journey should be 

 made in the night. In the experience of the author, fat 

 steers weighing between 1400 and 1500 pounds lost on an 

 average 75 pounds each in a journey of 15 miles made in 

 the night. 



While it is not possible to state exactly the amount of 

 shrinkage from shipping finished animals, it will be more 

 or less of an approximation to say that cattle loaded one 

 day, the next day occupied in transit, and the third day sold 

 and weighed, will shrink somewhere in the neighborhood of 

 5 per cent of the live weight, sheep about 4 per cent and 

 swine 4 to 5 per cent. Locally, cattle are sometimes pur- 

 chased on the basis of a shrinkage of 4 to 5 per cent on 

 the weight in the stall or feed lot. 



Feeding in stalls, sheds or yards. Looking at this 

 question from the standpoint of theory only, the conclusion 

 would be reached that the largest and also the cheapest 

 gains would be made from feeding in the stall as, when 

 thus fed, the animals are kept absolutely at rest and the 

 individual wants of each animal as to food may be exactly 

 met. Until recent years, the view was almost universal 

 that feeding cattle in the stall would be attended with the 

 greater profit. The trend of the results obtained, how- 

 ever, from the experiments conducted is rather in the op- 

 posite direction. Of course the attempt is never made to 

 feed sheep or swine in the stall. The former are almost 

 invariably fed in sheds under average farm conditions, and 

 are given access to well bedded yards at will. The latter 

 are, in nearly all instances, finished in pens under cover, 

 and are given access to small yards at will. But both sheep 

 and swine are in some instances finished on certain kinds of 

 pasture. 



The chief arguments in favor of finisning in the stall 

 are the following: (i) The food fed can be controlled 



