86 Western Live-stock Management 



method of marketing cattle for the beef producers is to 

 ship their own cattle direct to the stock-yards instead of 

 selling them to a shipper. The cattle are worth just 

 what they will bring on the market and selling them to 

 a shipper is merely gambling on the market, and gambling 

 with men who know much more about it than the pro- 

 ducers. Shippers will contend that on account of their ex- 

 perience and knowledge of conditions of the stock-yards, 

 they can get more for their cattle when they ship them 

 there than can the producer, but such statements are 

 questionable. The chief value of the shipper is in buying, 

 less than carload lots. The expenses of making a 

 shipment may be listed approximately as follows : Freight 

 from point of origin to market; commission amounting 

 to $15 a car ; feed, including the small amount of feed 

 which cattle will eat after arriving at the yard just before 

 being sold ; and yardage at 25 cents a head. In compar- 

 ing prices received at central market with prices offered 

 or received at home, the shrinkage must be considered, 

 as noted in a previous paragraph. All expenses consid- 

 ered, cattle shipped a distance of 200 or 400 miles should 

 be worth at home within about 50 cents to 75 cents a 

 hundred of what they would bring on the market. That 

 is, the expenses of freight, commission, yardage, feed, 

 and the shrinkage would make the cattle net on the 

 home weight about 50 cents to 75 cents a hundred less 

 than the price at the stock-yards. With long eastern 

 shipments of 1000 to 2000 miles, the difference in prices 

 will be about 75 cents to $1.25. 



COMPARISON OF FEEDS 



Alfalfa hay forms the basis of practically all of the 

 steer-feeding that is carried on in the West. In a few 



