﻿68 BULLETIN" 25, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



are therefore a good indication of what may be expected during a 

 normal season. 



In column 1 is shown the number of shipments of each of the 

 various classes of cattle. Column 2 shows the number of animals in 

 each of these classes. The third column shows the average weight of 

 the cattle at the point of origin. It is seen that the animals from the 

 Northwest are heavier than those from the Southwest; the south- 

 western cows weighed from 860 to 907 pounds, while the northwest- 

 ern cows averaged 1,020 pounds. The large difference between the 

 weights of the mixed cattle from the two sections is partially due to 

 the larger proportion of calves among the mixed cattle from the 

 Southwest. 



The burning of the cattle yards and all of the scales but one at 

 Fort Worth prevented the cattle from being weighed on arrival from 

 the ranch ; hence their shrinkage in transit and fill at market can not 

 be shown. The net shrinkage, however, is shown for all of the 

 shipments. 



In the fourth column is shown the variation in the gross shrinkage. 

 This variation of shrinkage for the different shipments in each class 

 was not great, being. 18, 25, and 26 pounds, respectively, for the range 

 steers, cows, and mixed cattle from the Northwest. The average 

 gross shrinkage, as recorded in column 5, was 111, 97, and 42 pounds, 

 respectively, for the same classes of cattle. 



The fill taken at market was very uniform for all classes, the great- 

 est variation being 19 pounds for the mixed cattle. The average fill 

 for the steers, cows, and mixed cattle from the Northwest was 41, 36, 

 and 21 pounds, respectively. 



The last two columns of the table present figures for the range and 

 the average net shrinkage for the various classes of cattle. It is of 

 interest to note how much more uniform the shrinkage was on the 

 different shipments of cattle from the Northwest as compared with 

 those of the Southwest, the range of net shrinkages being quite wide 

 with the shipments from the Southwest. The range of net shrinkage 

 on northwestern cows was from 65 to 83 pounds, a difference of 18 

 pounds, while with the southwestern cows it was 26 to 60 in one case 

 and 4 to 64 in another. 



The average net shrinkage on all of the cattle was as follows: 

 Calves, 12 pounds; northwestern range steers in transit 68 hours, 

 70 pounds; cows from the Southwest in transit less than 24 hours, 34 

 pounds, and those in transit from 24 to 36 hours, 32 pounds. The 

 mixed cattle of the Southwest shrank 26 pounds per head when in 

 transit less than 24 hours and 42 pounds when in transit from 24 to 

 36 hours, while the mixed cattle of the Northwest shrank but 21 

 pounds per head while in transit for about 72 hours. 



