months' wintering period, whereas, viewed from the stand- 

 point of cost of gain, 10 cents a pound would look like an ex- 

 cessive price and it would look like the animal had been 

 wintered disadvantageously. As a matter of fact, however, 

 he would probably be in a condition in the spring to very 

 quickly pay back this deficit of $2.50 in the rapid gains he 

 he would make at grass. 



In ordinary practice, cattle are kept on the farm in 

 winter to eat the surplus coarse forage, to clean up the 

 stalk fields, and to eat the surplus grass left from summer, 

 and if they pay expenses during the winter the farmer con- 

 siders himself fortunate. 



CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH SMALL 

 GAINS MAY BE JUSTIFIED 



Then, if the farmer should be possessed of a large 

 quantity of coarse fodder and only a limited quantity of 

 grain, and should likewise be possessed of considerable 

 cheap grass to be utilized the following summer, the most 

 profitable way in which steers could be wintered would be to 

 run them through comparatively thin, so that the pasture 

 might be utilized to the greatest advantage. As has 

 already been explained by making the gain larger in winter 

 the deficit in wintering could be reduced somewhat, but the 

 probabilities are that by fall the account would be squared, 

 or this excess deficit due to light winter feeding would be 

 overcome by the increased gains the steers would make at 

 pasture because of their thin condition. 



GAINS FROM LIGHT FEEDING RELATIVELY 

 COSTLY 



It has-already been pointed out that the gains made from 

 light feeding are relatively expensive. The old notion that 

 light feeding makes cheap gains will not bear investigation. 

 The truth is, other things being equal, the cheapest gains are 

 made on full feed or approximately full feed. As the ration 

 is decreased from this point, the food required per pound of 

 gain increases uniformly until a maintenance ration is reach- 

 So 



