38 BEEF PRODUCTION 



These cattle weighed approximately 1000 pounds at 

 the beginning and made an average daily gain per 

 steer for the six months of slightly over two pounds. 

 To be exact, the total gain per steer was 386.27 pounds. 

 Just enough hogs followed the steers to consume the 

 whole corn in the droppings of the steers to advantage. 

 No additional feed of any kind was supplied for the 

 hogs. In this way it was determined that 74.13 pounds 

 gain on hogs was made per steer fed. It took 57.73 

 bushels of corn and approximately .8 of a ton of 

 clover hay to secure the above gain on steer and pig. 

 It is probable that the gains made per unit of feed 

 were larger than those usually secured by corn-belt 

 cattle feeders. Stated in terms of beef and pork per 

 bushel of corn fed it would be 6.69 pounds beef and 

 1.29 pounds pork per bushel of corn fed. With these 

 figures as a basis, we may assume that it would be 

 fair for purposes, of this discussion to consider that 

 6 pounds of beef and 1.14 pounds of pork (75 

 pounds per steer in six months) may be made from 

 a bushel of broken ear corn supplemented with clover 

 hay where the corn is fed to well-bred two-year-old 

 feeding cattle with hogs following them to consume 

 the waste. It should be stated that the cattle fed 

 were not what would be called fully finished, as they 

 sold in the market for $5.95, when the top of the market 

 was $6.15 per hundredweight. Had these cattle been 

 full fed for a longer time (they were full fed only about 

 one hundred and twenty days) the total and average 

 daily gains would probably have been larger. 



The writer believes it would not have been difficult 

 to have secured an average daily gain of 2.2 pounds per 

 steer, or 396 pounds in one hundred and eighty days. 



We have then sufficient data as to gains and feed 

 required to produce gains to discuss intelligently the 

 subject of relation of the cost of these feeds to profits 

 in cattle feeding. To avoid misunderstanding let us 

 repeat that we assume that each steer involved in this 



