BREEDS OF BEEF CATTLE 283 



that the lambs made gain in weight at the rate of 1 pound from each 

 7.18 pounds of feed (Bulletin 33, pp. 536 and 565) consumed, at a 

 cost of 2.88 cents per pound for the gain made, while it required 11 

 pounds of feed to make a pound of gain on the yearlings, and at a 

 cost of 4 cents. All conditions except age were the same. 



The market also pays a premium on the younger animal, owing 

 to the fact that it furnishes a more profitable carcass and less waste 

 by reason of the absence of excessive fat. 



The modern feeder must combine the advantages of economy 

 of production resulting from early maturity, and the excellence and 

 enhanced value of the finished product that can only come from the 

 right kind of stock well handled. This implies good breeding and 

 continuous good feeding. These requirements are no longer merely 

 subservient, but practically imperative. (F. B. 71.) 



Grain for Young Cattle. This is almost self-evident. Three 

 year old steers, for example, can handle ear corn and coarse roughage 

 far more advantageously than can calves, say, that are just being 

 weaned. It is not at all difficult to make a fair rate of gain on young 

 animals, and to accomplish only this result would not require any 

 special preparation of grain. ^ But to make a gain that is sufficiently 

 rapid to fatten the animal within reasonable time does require that 

 the grain be offered in an easily assimilable form and that the rough- 

 age be of a very palatable and nutritious character. In other words, 

 as has already been pointed out, the first draft a young animal will 

 make on its food, outside of maintenance, is for growth, and it is nec- 

 essary to induce the animal to eat and digest an amount considerably 

 in excess of the requirement for maintenance and for growth in order 

 to make it fat. The aged steer, on the other hand, has little use for 

 food for growth, and puts practically its entire ration, outside of that 

 required for maintenance, to the uses of fat production, and it is not, 

 therefore, so vital a matter that the animal gain to the absolute limit 

 of its capacity in order to get fat in a reasonable time or to prove prof- 

 itable. Thus it comes about in practice that the feeders use ear corn 

 for aged cattle and crushed or ground or soaked or shelled corn for 

 calves and yearlings. (Mo. B. 76.) 



Long Time to Make Young Animals Fat. The younger the ani- 

 mal, the longer the time required to make it fat. This is on account 

 of the tendency of the young animal to utilize its feed so largely for 

 growth instead of for the production of fat. It is fat that makes the 

 animal ripe and marketable. Clearly, the young animal, when on 

 full feed, puts its food to three distinct uses: 1. Maintenance; 2. 

 Growth; 3. Fat. The rate of growth diminishes as the age of the 

 animal increases. After a certain time, therefore, the animal would 

 reach an age when growth would cease entirely. At such a time in 

 the life of any animal all of the available food above maintenance 

 would necessarily go to the production of fat. The presumption is 

 that the recfuirement for growth gradually diminishes, but not 

 directly with the age of the animal. This rate of growth has not 

 been determined for the different ages of the beef steer, but it is well 

 known that after the age of something like two years is reached, 



