55 



In every case above, the cost to make one hunched pounds 

 increase in live weight was very low. When steers are fat- 

 tened during the winter time each pound of gain is put on 

 at a loss, as each pound put on may be expected to cost 

 from 8 to 12 cents ; and the profit is dependent upon the en- 

 hancement of the value of the steer over and above the 

 selling value of pounds of gain made. In these tests each 

 pound put on during the fattening period was put on at 

 a profit, a very unusual occurrence in fattening beef cattle- 

 These cheap finishing gains made the feeding operations 

 comparatively safe as far as profits were concerned. As 

 stated before, these cheap gains were due to two factors: 

 First, the cattle had a cheap and succulent roughage; pas- 



LOT D. End of summer 1908. Feed, cottonseed cake and pasture. 

 Average daily gain of each steer 1.62 pounds. 

 Cost of 100 pounds of gain .... $3.24 

 Total profit per steer 43 



ture. Second, the amount of concentrated feeds used was 

 kept down to a comparatively small figure : from 2.76 to 

 3.31 pounds of cottonseed cake and 4.48 pounds of cotton- 

 seed were fed to each steer daily. At the Missouri Station 

 (Bulletin 76) the average of the summer trials show that 814 

 pounds of grain were required to produce one hundred 

 pounds of gain, while in the Alabama test only 143 to 218 

 pounds of concentrate were required to make the same 

 crains. At Missouri the steers were given an approximate 

 daily feed of 20 pounds of grain in addition to the pasture. 



