FEEDING AND MANAGEMENT OF BEEF CATTLE. 63 



cattle are ready for market about March 1st of the following year. Such 

 a condition necessarily causes an oversupply of fat cattle, especially on 

 the local markets, where most of them fattened in this State are sold. 

 If the beginning of the fee-ding period could be deferred for one month 

 even, so that some of these cattle could be marketed between the time the 

 major portion of the grain fed cattle are sold, and the grass cattle come 

 on the market, they could be disposed of more readily and at better 

 prices. As this is important, any system which can be devised to remedy 

 it will be a great benefit to the cattle feeders of the State. 



Selecting and Sorting for Market, 



In buying cattle for feeding purposes, it is important that they be 

 purchased at a reasonable price. Cattle well bought are half sold. 

 Likewise, it is important to obtain the highest market price possible, 

 and to do this the cattle should not only be fat but they should be uni- 

 form in size, type and quality. 



FIG. 8. A lot of 800-pound feeders, too young to fatten satisfactorily in a short feeding period, 

 although otherwise they average very well in feeding qualities. 



Some cattle feeders have the idea that the good cattle in the lot will 

 sell the inferior ones. This is a mistake, and especially so when they 

 are sold on a central market. On the other hand it is true that the in- 

 ferior cattle will depress the selling price of the whole lot. Local 

 butchers are not so critical, yet it is far better to have a uniform lot of 

 cattle even for this market. In the large stock markets, the speculator 

 makes a profitable business of buying mixed lots of stock, sorting them 

 according to weight, quality and condition, and then reselling them at an 

 advanced price because of their uniformity. 



It is important that cattle feeders pay more attention to this point. 

 An unsatisfactory sale is often the result of not giving these matters 

 proper thought and care. When cattle are shipped or if a buyer comes 

 to the farm they should be properly divided in the way mentioned above. 

 If one-half of a lot of steers are in high condition, and one-half in low 

 condition, it would be unwise to mix them with the idea that the steers 

 in low condition would sell as well as the others. In a case of this kind, 

 it would be much better to offer the good ones for sale in a lot by them- 

 selves and retain the others until they were fat. 



