138 



Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 



The value of this class of cattle depends partly on their age, and this 

 is determined from the teeth. 



How are cattle classed and graded? — Persons who are not familiar 

 with the large markets sometimes ask by what method the thousands 

 of cattle arriving daily at the yards are divided into the various classes 

 and grades. To reply that cattle are classified according to the use 

 made of them, while true, is not a satisfactory answer, for another 

 question then arises as to who or what decides how they shall be used. 

 It may be said that the class and grade of any particular animal or 

 carload of animals on the market will be finally determined by the 

 competition on that day's market and by the price paid; in other 



5 "».-.- ^A 



Fig. 45.— Stockers. 



words, supply and demand largely determine the limits of each class. 

 For example, certain steers received at the market are of a type and 

 carry a degree of fleshing which place them at about the dividing line 

 between stockers and feeders on the one hand and beef steers on the 

 other. The class these steers will make will depend on who will bid 

 the highest for them. If there is a big run of feeders that day and not 

 many beef steers, the fat cattle buyers will probably bid higher for 

 them than anyone else, and so they go as beef steers. If the fat steer 

 market is dull and the feeder market active, they will in all probability 

 be sold as feeders. 



There is the same indefinite line of division between the poorest 

 grade of butcher cows and the best grade of cutters. The former 

 shade off by degrees into the latter. Cows may sell one day as butcher 



