﻿IV. SUMMARY OF THREE YEARS' SHRINKAGE WORK. 



By W. F. Wakd, 

 Senior Animal Hv&bandman, Animal Husbandry Division. 



GENERAL STATEMENT. 



The cattle used in making this investigation were raised in differ- 

 ent parts of the West. The range cattle work was carried on in the 

 various Western States from Texas to Montana, and the work with 

 the fed cattle was confined chiefly to the States of the Middle West. 

 No discrimination was made against any section, but the work was 

 done where the conditions were most favorable for it. There were 

 many tilings that had to be considered, but the one of most impor- 

 tance was the scales used in making the weighings. There were no 

 platform scales that could be used in weighing cattle on the hoof 

 in the range country, so the railroad track scales had to be used. 

 Great care was taken in making all weighings that the data should 

 be accurate. The officials of the railroads realized the importance 

 of the work and gave whatever aid was asked of them. The Texas 

 and Pacific road even went so far as to purchase scales for weighing 

 cattle on the hoof and placed them in the alleys of two of their 

 important loading pens, so that all cattle would have to pass over 

 them before being loaded. These scales were large, being 14 by 42 

 feet, so that a whole car of cattle could get on them at one time 

 without crowding. They were set on a solid concrete foundation 

 and were very accurate. The installation of these scales at Colorado, 

 Tex., and Odessa, Tex., aided very materially in securing the shrink- 

 age data on cattle from the Southwest. The burning of the cattle 

 yards at Fort Worth in 1911 prevented the weights of cattle being 

 taken on arrival, so the fill the animals took at market could not be 

 ascertained for that year. 



The shrinkage of cattle in transit is such a variable factor that no 

 one can say definitely how much it will be during a journey, but by 

 the use of very large numbers of cattle an average shrinkage will be 

 obtained which may be used as a basis for estimating the amount of 

 shrinkage on cattle shipped under similar conditions. 



The figures for any class of cattle of the Southwest will be seen to 

 vary widely for the years of 1910 and 1911 because of the great dis- 

 similarity in the two seasons, which caused a difference in the graz- 

 ing, the fatness of the animals, scarcity of water, etc. If the figures 



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