CHAPTER III. 



THE VARIOUS GRADES OF FEEDING CATTLE 

 DESCRIBED 



The ability to select stockers and feeders intelligent- 

 ly is one of the first and most important lessons for the 

 stockman to learn. Profits in steer feeding come not 

 so much from skill in feeding and management as from 

 intelligent buying and selling. The possibility of profit 

 resulting from an increase during the fattening period 

 of the value per pound of the initial weight of the an- 

 imal is as great as is that resulting from the method em- 

 ployed in the feeding and managment. It is seldom 

 possible to produce at a profit gains which do not in- 

 crease the value per pound of the animal. Hence the 

 importance of intelligent buying, or the selection of 

 feeders and stockers of good quality. 



FANCY SELECTED FEEDERS 



Relatively, very few of this grade of stockers and feed- 

 ers find their way to market. Breeders in any of the 

 cattle feeding sections fortunate enough to own thinnish 

 steers of such quality usually hold them until finished 

 as prime bullocks, or sell them at home to feeders at 

 good, strong prices, avoiding the expenses incident to 

 shipping. Fancy selected feeders must not only possess 

 the characteristics of choice feeders, but they must be 

 uniform in color, give unmistakable evidence of being 

 high grades of some one of the beef breeds, and they are 

 almost invariably better fleshed than feeders of the good 

 to choice grades. Fancy selected stockers and feeders 

 are to the stocker and feeder class what prime steers are 

 to the beef cattle class — the best grade within the class 

 — and practically above adverse criticism. 



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