222 



FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



has been overwatered or not. When cat- 

 tle are bought by buyers to be shipped 

 still farther on the cars, it is of 

 great importance that they be in con- 

 dition to stand the farther shipment at 

 once. If cattle drink too freely they 

 are apt to flounder and break down. The 

 packing houses can use these cattle, 

 but it stops competition as far as out- 

 side buyers are concerned, and the re- 

 sult is a considerably lower price than 

 they would normally have brought had 

 they not been oversalted and thus drunk 

 too freely. 



With cattle shipped from feeding 

 pens, there will ordinarily be no especial 

 preparation for their shipment neces- 

 sary. They should be fed as usual on 

 the day of shipment. If the cattle are 

 not used to having salt every day, it 

 should not be given to them on the 

 morning they are taken to the station. 

 Water may be withheld from the stock 

 on the day of shipment in cold weather, 

 but should not be withheld in warm 

 weather. 



A prominent firm of commission 

 dealers on the Kansas City market, 

 states that: "A big fill is not by any 

 means the desired end in the marketing 

 of beef cattle. To handle them intelli- 

 gently in the feed Tot and on the way 

 to the shipping point and to load them 

 with care, means much more for the 

 appearance of animals on the market 

 and helps to make a sale. Cattle buyers 

 are paid for what they know and so 

 their bids on sore and down cattle, the 

 result of bad shipping or heavy fill, are 

 in accordance with appearance of con- 

 signments in the pens. What a shipper 

 gains in one direction is frequently lost 

 in another." 



Loading cattle — As to the loading of 

 cattle, Clay, Robinson & Co. state that 

 the best investment a shipper ever made 

 was in putting extra good bedding in 



his cars, as it means a big saving from 

 loss of possibly dead or crippled cattle, 

 as well as the shrinkage. The car 

 should be loaded comfortably full, as 

 steers ride better than when loaded loose- 

 ly. If fairly compacted, it prevents 

 throwing by the starting and stopping 

 of the cars. On the other hand, if the 

 car is crowded too heavily, it is not easy 

 for a steer to get up if he once gets 

 down, and often a crippled or a dead 

 animal is the result. There will also 

 be less loss from this source if the 

 stock is classified and all those put in 

 one car approximating the same weight. 

 This, of course, cannot be done where 

 only one car is sent, except in a limited 

 way by partitions, but is a matter of 

 importance where several cars are 

 shipped. 



Factors affecting selling price of cat- 

 tle for beef — There are a number of fac- 

 tors affecting price of cattle in the mar- 

 ket. These are the supply, the class 

 and breed of cattle, their weight, sex 

 and age, amount of by-products fur- 

 nished, etc. 



The supply of cattle is one of the 

 most important factors influencing 

 price. There appears to be a marked 

 seasonable variation in the cattle supply 

 of the markets. Usually the supply in 

 the second half of the year is consider- 

 ably greater than during the first half. 

 For five of the principal markets it 

 averages 30 per cent more. This is 

 largely due to the fact that the move- 

 ment of grass-fed cattle to market, espe- 

 cially from the ranches, begins in the 

 middle of the summer, and continues 

 until winter. The average prices of 

 native, western, and Texan cattle for 

 the first and second halves of the years 

 1902-3, as paid by leading packers in 

 Chicago, is shown in the following 

 table : 



Price 

 January-June 

 July-December 



1902 



Native Western 

 ..$6.07 — 



, . 5.90 $4.00 



Texan 



$fi.45 



4.38 



Native 



$4.71 



4.86 



1903 

 Western Texan 

 — $4.15 



$3.66 3.82 



The native breeds mentioned in the 

 above table are usually understood to in- 

 clude those cattle reared in the agricul- 

 tural regions of the middle West. They 

 are generally fattened on corn and char- 

 acterized as cattle of superior breed, ac- 

 companied by larger size and good qual- 

 ity of meat. 



Western cattle are those bred in the 

 grazing states of the West and North- 

 west. They are practically the same 

 stock as the native of the present day 

 but do not class so high on the average. 

 They differ principally in their different 

 preparation for market. 



