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



miles or GO hours; St. Louis, 825 miles or TO hours; and Chicago, 

 1.000 miles or 119 hours. The average shrinkage of all cattle to St. 

 Joseph was 37 pounds; to Kansas City, 55^ pounds; to St. Louis, 

 08 pounds; and to Chicago, 88^ pounds. 



The silage-fed cattle were usually put on dry feed the day before 

 shipping, and no doubt there was considerable shrinkage on these 

 cattle during this time, although there are no data to confirm this. 

 This would be especially noticeable where the water was cut off from 

 them for 12 hours before shipping, as was sometimes done. All of 

 the silage-fed cattle shrank heavily in transit, but in every case took 

 a large fill at market. The fills taken were so large that the net 

 shrinkage on silage-fed cattle averaged smaller than for any other 

 class of fed cattle. 



There was one shipment of 107 head of silage-fed cattle which 

 were held off water but given dry feeds for over 15 hours before 

 shipping, and consequently shrank so little in transit that the fill 

 taken at market overcame the shrinkage and they showed a gain of 

 7 pounds each. This lowered the shrinkage on the whole class sev- 

 eral pounds. The shrinkage on the silage-fed cattle was 29 pounds 

 for those in transit less than 24 hours and 43 pounds for those in 

 transit from 24 to 36 hours. This was equivalent to 2.05 per cent of 

 the live weight in one case and 3.57 per cent in the other. 



A glance at Table 29, presenting the general summary of the work, 

 brings out the fact that the weights of about 2,500 head of corn-fed 

 cattle were used in determining the shrinkage on this class. The 

 gross shrinkage is seen to vary widely, ranging from 47 to 128 

 pounds per head. The fill taken at market varied from 4 to 52 

 pounds per head. The average fill at market was smaller than for 

 any other class of grown cattle except those fed on cottonseed meal 

 and hulls. The net shrinkage of these cattle was 51 pounds for the 

 steers which were in transit less than 24 hours, and 48 pounds for 

 lighter steers which were in transit from 24 to 36 hours. This was 

 a heavier shrinkage than that of the range cattle for the same 

 length of time, but when the weight of the animals is considered 

 the percentage of shrinkage is seen to be about the same, the corn- 

 fed steers in transit less than 24 hours shrinking 3.91 per cent as 

 compared with 4.11 per cent for the steers in transit from 24 to 36 

 hours. This shrinkage was greater than that of the silage-fed 

 steers, but much smaller than for the pulp-fed cattle. 



The cattle fed on cottonseed hulls and meal shrank very uniformly, 

 and the gross shrinkage was not large; it was. in fact, not as large as 

 that of either pulp or silage fed cattle. However, all of these cattle 

 arrived at market when snow and ice were everywhere in evidence, 

 and the fill taken in every case was small, so that the net shrinkage 

 was comparatively high. 



