CHAPTER XVIII 



Finishing Stock for Market 



As has already been stated, the feeding of live 

 stock is a difficult and complex art on account of 

 the great number of influencing factors. These 

 factors do not all pertain to the composition and 

 combination of feeds which will produce the 

 greatest absolute results in whatever line of feed- 

 ing is pursued, but they relate in still greater meas- 

 ure to the relative profits to be secured from dif- 

 ferent feeding practices. A feeding ration which 

 is well adapted to the needs of certain conditions, 

 is not necessarily the best under all conditions. 

 Because a certain system of feeding will produce 

 given known results with a certain class of stock 

 is not in itself evidence that the most profitable re- 

 turns will be secured from it. The value of feed 

 and the market price of finished live stock enter 

 into the question and form intricate problems which 

 require for their solution the best judgment that 

 education and experience can furnish. What will 

 prove profitable feeding practice for one season, 

 with a stated value for feeds and a corresponding 

 price for feeding animals, will not necessarily prove 

 profitable the next season when both the raw ma- 

 terial and the finished product may have far dif- 

 ferent relative values. Wide experience and an 

 intelligent interest in market conditions and in 

 crop production will go a long way toward pro- 

 moting the formation of an intelligent opinion on 

 questions of values. Yet instances are numerous 

 in the experience of almost every feeder when 



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