April, '19] COST OF RAISING BEEF CATTLE. 9 



good use of the feed and its tendency to develop good beef form ; 

 (2) amount of labor; (3) variation in price of feed, and (4) varia- 

 tion in price of beef. 



The first two of these factors (labor and selection of the stock) 

 are purely a matter of management whose control lies entirely 

 in the hands of the individual farmer. The third (the cost of 

 feed) lies under his control in proportion to the amount of the 

 feed he is able to grow and the cost at which he can grow it; other- 

 wise if he buys it all it is entirely beyond his control. The fourth 

 (price of beef) lies entirely outside the influence of the individual 

 farmer. 



In this experiment all four of these factors contributed to 

 the net profit which accrued after paying all bills and allowing 

 a good price on the hay. The animals made good gains; labor 

 was reduced to a minimum; feed, especially hay, was not quoted 

 high on the market; and the price of beef went up. 



It is interesting to study the effect on net profits caused by 

 the use of poor stock, an excessive amount of labor, high price of 

 feed, or a decline in price of beef. 



In growing beef, the quality of the animal is probably the 

 most important single factor not only because gain means profit 

 but also because scrubs are worth less per pound. In this instance 

 a half a pound of daily gain instead of a pound would have elim- 

 inated the net profit entirely. 



The labor in this instance was reduced to a minimum. Had 

 the conditions been such as to treble the time necessary for daily 

 care, a condition which could easily occur by careless manage- 

 ment, the net profit would also have been absorbed. A decline 

 of one cent below the purchase price of live stock would have 

 had a similar effect, and the same would have occurred if the hay 

 had cost $18 instead of $9 per ton. The grain was bought 

 at a price which is seldom much higher in proportion to beef 

 cattle prices. In fact, a close study of the market shows that 

 the price between grain and beef is much more closely related 

 than between hay and beef so that a poor choice of feed is more 

 often the cause of loss than is an unequal fluctuation in the price 

 of grain, where one buys grain for growing cattle merely to bal- 

 ance the ration. This is quite a different problem than that of 

 buying grain to fatten cattle on a heavj'' ration. 



