28 



Growing Feeder Steers in Western Nebraska 



TABLE 16. Cost of feed for 100 Ibs. gain on steers during each 



winter. 



These figures have very little relation to the cost of the steers 

 per hundred in the spring, since the entire cost of wintering a 

 steer may be charged against a very small gain. 



The increase in weight during the summer was made three 

 times faster (Table 10) than during the winter. These gains 

 are also much cheaper as show T n by Tables 16 and 17. The cost 

 of the summer gain depends largely upon the conditions under 

 which the steers are pastured. Renting pasture on the usual 

 terms prevailing is cheaper than owning the land. In the Sand 

 Hills area, and in other parts of western Nebraska where it is not 

 deemed advisable to crop more than a small proportion of the 

 land, pasture is still cheap, but in the farming sections pasture 

 for growing cattle can not be considered cheap, when the cattle 

 are charged with interest on the money invested in the land; at 

 least it can not be considered "cheap" in the sense that this word 

 has been applied to pasture in western Nebraska. Under the 

 conditions on the Substation farm and in the country adjacent 

 to North Platte and probably thruout a large part of the hard 

 land areas of western Nebraska, the cost of summer pasture 

 for a steer will not be far from the charge we have made, where 

 the owner has title to the land. This charge is 6 per cent inter- 

 est on 8 acres of land valued at fS.OO per acre plus 25 cents for 

 water for each steer. This acreage may be too low for average 



