98 Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 



N. Y., offered $1,000 to anyone who would deliver a bullock weighing 

 4,000 pounds. Prior to 1856, two Illinois cattlemen fed one hundred 

 head of high-grade Shorthorn steers and marketed them at an average 

 weight of 1,965 pounds. About the same time, another feeder collected 

 a lot of one hundred grade steers and fed them to the enormous average 

 of 2,377 pounds. ^ These feats are said to have widely advertised the 

 Shorthorn as a beef-making breed, the paramount consideration of 

 cattle feeders at that time being the attainment of great weight and 

 immense bulk. 



The turn toward baby beef.^-Fat-stock shows are, in most respects, 

 criterions of market demands in cattle. The champions of early days 

 were big, matured steers. In 1891, the Chicago Fat Stock Show elimi- 

 nated classes for three-year-old steers; that date marked the turning 

 point toward what has since become known as "baby beef." In 1918 

 the International Live Stock Exposition at Chicago abolished the class 

 for two-year-old steers. The tendency is more and more toward the 

 finishing of younger, quicker-maturing animals. The changes that are 

 being wrought are not plainly evident unless comparisons are made 

 extending over a period of years, or unless the operations of some of 

 the more progressive beef producers have been followed during recent 

 times. 



Present demand is for early maturity. — Breeders and feeders now 

 put much stress on quickness of maturity. This they have secured by 

 selecting short-legged, blocky, compact animals, which fatten and ma- 

 ture at a much younger age than the more rangy type popular in the 

 early days. Some sacrifice has been made of size and weight in order 

 to produce a type that will make beef quickly, yet the better breeders 

 are careful to maintain a proper degree of size along with the low-set, 

 blocky type of body. The change has been vastly beneficial to the 

 breeder, feeder, butcher, and consumer. 



Consumers' demands have changed. — The steaks and roasts of a 

 half century ago were of large size and were frequently so fat as to be 

 wasteful. Very fat beef is rich and juicy and may be favored if the 

 price is not high. In early times beef was relatively cheaper than it is 

 today, families were larger, and the average citizen did more muscular 

 work and more outdoor work, so that large, highly finished cuts of beef 

 were popular. Today the price of beef is higher, families are smaller, 

 and more people are engaged in sedentary and indoor occupations, so 

 that cuts of beef of medium size and moderate finish best suit the needs 

 of the average consumer. Under present conditions most consumers 

 do not relish fat meat. Meat dealers designate very fat carcasses and 

 cuts of beef as "wasteful." Retail dealers will not buy them except at 



1 Shorthorn Cattle, pp. 335, 336. 



