FEEDING BABY BEEVES. 21 



Another important consideration is the grade of cattle that should be 

 used for producing baby beef. While high grade beef cattle, whether 

 young or old, are always to be preferred for feeding, there is no case 

 in which good individuality and breeding are of so much importance 

 as in that of feeder calves and yearlings. The straight-lined, smooth, 

 blocky, robust, sappy-hided, well-bred, beefy individuals, with short, 

 wide heads, are the kind that give the best results. Such animals 

 possess, in a marked degree, the tendency to fatten at an early age, 

 and when finished they are of the class that commands the highest 

 price on the market. 



If calves that are to be fattened can be got on feed before being 

 weaned they will shrink far less when weaning takes place and will, 

 therefore, be further advanced in the fattening process at a given age 

 than if they had been weaned before being started on feed. Of course, 

 it is generally onl} 7 the man who raises his calves that is in a position 

 to handle them in this way. If weaning must take place first, then 

 every effort should be made to get the calves on feed as soon as pos- 

 sible in order to keep them from losing their milk fat. 



SUMMARY. 



1. There was very little difference in the gains of the four lots of 

 calves. 



2. Based on the selling prices of $9.50 per 100 pounds for Lot 1 and 

 $9.41 per 100 pounds for Lot 2, peanut meal (hulls included) was 

 worth only $21.40 per ton, with cotton seed meal at $35.00 per ton. 



3. ' Based on the selling price of $9.50 per 100 pounds for Lots 1 

 and 3, cold-pressed cotton seed was worth only $22.80 per ton, with 

 cotton seed .meal at $35.00 per toft. 



4. Based on the selling price of $9.50 per 100 pounds for Lot 1 

 and $9.43 per 100 pounds for Lot 4, cotton seed hulls were worth only 

 $5.34 per ton, with Sudan hay at $10.00 per ton. 



5. In all of the lots there was an advantage in having hogs follow 

 the calves. 



G. Though the difference in the dressing percentages of the dif- 

 ferent lots of calves was not great, Lot 3 ranked first with 59.90 per 

 cent; Lot 2 second with 59.20 per cent; Lot 1 third with 58.80 per cent, 

 and Lot 4 fourth with 58.10 per cent. That there was little difference 

 in the quality of the different lots of carcasses is indicated in the fol- 

 lowing statement from Armour & Company: 



"Taking all lots together, they were a very desirable kind of beef for 

 this territory, and were about as even a bunch as we ever get/' 



7. The calves should have been marketed by June 1, before the hot 

 weather and the flies became severe. 



