﻿60 BULLETIN 25, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Cattle from Texas may have been driven anywhere from 1 to up- 

 ward of 100 miles to the railroad for shipping. As a rule they are 

 driven from 15 to 20 miles each day and then grazed along the trail 

 for a few hours, and this procedure is kept up until the shipping pens 

 are reached. Few cattlemen feed their cattle on arrival at the ship- 

 ping pens before loading. Many prefer not letting their cattle have 

 any water, or if they do, to let them drink little, as it is said they do 

 not stand up well in the cars. The racks of the cars are seldom filled 

 with hay for the stock to eat while in transit, as some shippers claim 

 that the cattle will eat little of it, while others assert that if the cattle 

 do eat much hay it will diminish their hunger to such an extent that 

 they will not take a good fill at market. However, this was found to 

 be ' the case in very few instances. The discussion of this will be 

 taken up later. 



Unfortunately for the completeness of the work, in the early fall 

 of 1911 practically the entire cattle yards of the Fort Worth Stock 

 Yards Co. burned, destroying all the scales in the yards but one. 

 In consequence of this the weighing of stock after sale caused such a 

 congestion near the scales that it was impossible to weigh the range 

 cattle on arrival at market. For this reason the fill of the animals 

 could not be determined, but as the sale weight was secured the net 

 shrinkage on each shipment was ascertained. As it is only the net 

 shrinkage which is absolutely important to the cattlemen, the value 

 of the work was not materially lessened. 



RANGE COWS IN TRANSIT LESS THAN 24 HOURS. 



Table 23 presents the weights and shrinkage data obtained on 1,307 

 range cows that were in transit to market less than 24 hours. A 

 study of the table reveals the fact that the shrinkage varied consider- 

 ably with the different lots, there being a range of 26 to 60 pounds 

 on different shipments. 



The small shrinkages invariably occurred with the cattle that had 

 either been driven a long way to load without having sufficient time 

 to graze along the way, or that had been held for several hours with- 

 out feed or water before weighing. The cattle which showed a large 

 shrinkage Avere usually ones which had taken a good fill before weigh- 

 ing, or had failed to fill at market, though sometimes it was due to a 

 poor run to market. All of the shipments presented in this table 

 received good runs to market, and the average shrinkage for all the 

 animals, 34 pounds per head, will give a good idea of the shrinkage 

 to be expected from shipping cattle a distance of about 325 miles, or 

 a 22-hour run. 



The shipment from Colorado, Tex., of 31 head of cows, which were 

 in transit only 19£ hours and shrank 60 pounds, was driven but 4 



