88 



requiring but three months to finish would need more than 20 

 cents a month to prove equally profitable. It frequently hap- 

 pens in actual practice, however, that the longer time required 

 to fatten the thin cattle will be a greater handicap than will the 

 excess cost in the gains on the fatter cattle. This is because 

 the finishing period of the thin cattle might fall at a particularly 

 undesirable season of the year, on account of the weather, or the 

 probability of poor demand for this particular class of cattle on 

 the market. In fact, to the feeder who lives near the market, 

 and is able to spend considerable time in the yards, the greatest 

 profit in feeding comes from the purchase of partially fat steers 

 and finishing them in from 50 to 100 days and returning them 

 to the market. This is of course hardly feasible except where 

 the freight charge for this double transfer is small and where 

 the feeder is near enough to market to pick up bargains of this 

 sort. These partially fat cattle are as a rule what the original 

 feeder considered to be finished and in marketable condition, 

 but when they reached the market and found too much com- 

 petition and too poor a demand on account of their lack of fat, 

 were forced down to feeder prices. Frequently such cattle 

 may be secured at a price to leave a margin of from $1.00 to 

 $1.50 for a 60 or 90 day feed. It is perfectly obvious that the 

 somewhat increased cost of the gains due to it being the latter 

 end of the feeding period would be of little consequence in the 

 face of this large enhancement in price for so short a feed. 



The question was put directly to the feeders interviewed: 



Question n. "In selling your fat cattle, what margin over 

 the cost price of your feeders do you consider necessary to make 

 money ?" 



Altogether, 608 Missouri feeders answered this question, 

 and gave an average of $1.02 per hundred margin for the entire 

 feeding operation; 8 Iowa feeders reported an average of 98 

 cents per hundred, whereas 34 Illinois feeders reported the 

 average margin necessary as $1.02, or exactly the same as the 

 Missouri feeders reported. 



When it is recalled that these same men reported the 

 average length of their feeding period to be i77 days, or essen- 

 tially six months, and that the average weight of their cattle 



