Growing Feeder Steers in Western Nebraska 51 



the time when the average weight was 1188 Ibs. per steer. To 

 have paid their cost at that date, they would have sold neces- 

 sarily at |5.16 per 100 Ibs. The net selling price at Omaha 

 amounted to $4.29 per 100 Ibs. on the North Platte weights. 



The exact profit or loss on the entire operation is rather 

 difficult to determine. But we can arrive at it fairly accurately. 

 The difference between home weights and Omaha weights was 

 3.1* per cent. That is, a steer of Lot 1, weighing 1215 Ibs. at 

 home after being in a corral over night without water, shrunk 

 38 Ibs. before he was sold in Omaha. We therefore consider 

 the weights of the steers of each lot to be the home weight less 

 3.1 per cent. The cost of shipping and selling was equal to 

 28.1 cents per 100 Ibs., Omaha weights. This makes the cost of 

 shipping and selling |3.23 per steer besides the shrinkage. The 

 total cost of the steer when sold in Omaha includes the original 

 cost of the calf in the fall of 1007, the cost of all feed, interest 

 on cost of steer at end of each period, and the cost of marketing 

 him. Calculating in this way, the average steer of Lot 1 when 

 sold in Omaha had cost $69.92, and of Lot 2 $58.59. The price 

 of the steers of the other lots ranged between these. 



The steers of each lot \vere put into a separate pen at the 

 Stock Yards at Valley where a cattle salesman from Omaha 

 placed an estimated selling value on each lot. Taking his valua- 

 tion, which is given in Table 38, as the selling price, tho it was 

 slightly below the actual selling price, we find that the steers of 

 no lot paid all that they had cost. The heaviest loss was with 

 the steers fed alfalfa. For reasons already mentioned we do 

 not think that the loss on this lot should have been as much as 

 the results of this experiment indicate, but we have no explana- 

 tion to offer for the loss on the other lots. We believe these 

 figures represent approximately the average result of keeping 

 cattle under conditions similar to those under which these 

 cattle were kept. 



The conditions were similar to those prevailing on the better 



