SHRINKAGE OF WEIGHT OF BEEF CATTLE 1ST TEA 1ST SIT. 59 
ing day without anything to eat or drink. They had neither feed nor 
water for 48 hours before being loaded. They naturally looked very 
bad, almost like shadows, when loaded, and weighed up light. There 
was 150 pounds of hay put in the racks of each car at Dickinson, and 
the cattle stayed on feed and water 16J hours at Staples, Minn., where 
they took an enormous fill. The weights at Staples were net secured, 
as the cattle were supposed to run into St. Paul without being 
unloaded. 
These cattle, instead of showing a shrinkage in transit weighed 
from 2 to 5 pounds heavier after taking a fill at market than at Dick- 
inson, N. Dak. This was without doubt due to the abnormal condi- 
tion they were in when loaded. This method of handling cattle is 
to be condemned, as it is cruel to the. animals in the first place and 
unprofitable for the shipper as well. Cattle shipped under such con- 
ditions look bad when they arrive at market and show the large fill 
to such an extent that their selling price is much lower than for 
animals with an average fill. This is an instance where the large fill 
at market is undesirable. 
DETAILS OF WORK IN SOUTHWEST. 
The pastures throughout Texas had been very short during the 
whole } r ear of 1910. In fact, the grass was so scant in some parts that 
many cattle would have died had there not been a fair crop of mes- 
quite beans upon which to feed. Because of the drought very little 
grass grew along the trails over which cattle traveled to the loading 
pens, and the cattle driven along these trails usually arrived at the 
loading point with a very poor fill, and consequently weighed up 
light at the point of origin. Some of these cattle were so empty 
when first weighed that the shrinkage in transit was very small, and 
sometimes was completely overcome by the fill taken at the market. 
A season of this kind is conducive to a small shrinkage. While the 
results obtained from the shrinkage work of 1910-11 (shown in Part 
I of this bulletin) are applicable to a dry or droughty year, they do 
not represent the normal shrinkage under average conditions. For 
this reason, it was decided to duplicate the work of 1910 in the 
Southwest. 
During the winter of 1910-11 there were frequent rains, and the 
grass in Texas was good the following summer. This grazing season 
was about a normal one for Texas, and the results obtained from the 
shrinkage work may be taken as an average. Most of the cattle 
shipped in the fall were either in good flesh or fat. There were a 
few exceptions, of course, but taking the cattle that were weighed as 
a whole, they were about the average of what go to market from 
Texas during a normal or average year. 
