260 



Cost of Producing Beef in Winter. [july, 



Store, weighing 10 cwt., bought at £17 or 34s., per cwt. live- 

 weight = 50 per cent, carcase, and yields 40 stone at 8s. $%d. 

 Fat bullock, weighing 12 cwt., sold at 34s. per cwt., or £20 ys. 6d. 

 live-weight = fat 58 per cent, carcase, and yields 55 stone 10 lb., 

 it ys. /\d. 



Having bought in the first case 40 stone at 8s. $\d. and sold 

 it at 7s. 4d., he must repay himself 40 times is. f\d., or £2 5s., 

 'before he can realize the full value of the increased carcase- 

 weight. 



Farmyard Manure. — The farmyard manure left by the feeding 

 bullock has now to be taken into consideration. For with 

 beef so often selling at ys. 6d. or even ys. per stone of 14 lb. it 

 is obvious that only too frequently the dung has to pay 

 a very big balance between the cost of producing and the receipt 

 from the sale of winter beef. 



An old-fashioned, and I have found a sound, way of estimating 

 the amount of dung made is to take the weight of straw supplied 

 to the animal as litter and multiply that amount by four. 

 An animal in a box will require, to keep him comfortable and 

 at the same time absorb the urine voided, some 12 lb. a day ; 

 in an open yard 56 lb. may be trodden down ; 6 to 8 lb. will do 

 in a stall and 20 lb. in a covered yard. Taking 28 lb. as a mean, 

 it may be assumed that the average bullock makes 1 cwt. a day, 

 or say, roughly, ij tons per month. Assuming that \ cwt. 

 of live-weight for beef has been produced at a cost of 28s. , 

 without charging for straw used as litter, and yields 75 per 

 cent, of carcase-weight or 3 stone of 14 lb. at ys. 6d., we 

 mid that this ij ton of dung costs the difference between 

 22s. 6d. and 28s., or 5s. 6d. If a more favourable price is made, 

 that is to say, if the carcase- weight realises over ys. 6d. a stone, 

 ■or if a higher percentage of the live- weight is beef, it costs less. 

 On the other hand the estimate is too low if the feeding bullock 

 has not been got ripe enough with 16 weeks feeding to sell, or 

 if the store has been bought at a greater price per stone of 

 carcase-weight than the beef is sold at, or if less than 1 ■ 5 ton of 

 dung can be made by the fattening bullock in a month. In 

 practice we fear that the debit balance to beef is often very 

 great, and in one instance, that of a hop-grower, known to me 

 personally, no less than 8s. 6d. per ton had to be allowed for 

 dung before the account would balance ; and in this case as in 

 vprevious examples no charge was made for straw for litter. 



