30 
BULLETIN 12' 
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
interest charge and labor, vary nearly directly with the length of the 
period. Still other charges will he intermediate in their relation. 
In a complete study, the exact relations of all these costs should be 
determined and used. For this present example, it will be assumed 
that all costs can be divided into those constant and those varying 
directly with length of period. For the period for which this drove 
was actually fed — 170 days — the costs assumed to be constant 
amounted to $35.40 per head, arid the others to $6.91 per head. Table 
28 gives the costs per pound of gain under these assumptions for the 
different feeding periods. It appears that the period for which this 
drove was actually fed — 170 days — was not the most economical. 
This combination represented a rather low input of hay, but since the 
value of the hay was high compared to the value of the corn, it ap- 
proached the combination which would have produced gains at the 
least cost. There were other farmers in this same area who were 
feeding combinations as intensive as 27 pounds of corn and 16 pounds 
of hay per day for a 160-day period, or 26 pounds of corn and 9 
pounds of hay per day for a 90-day period. 
Obviously, if such intensive combinations were analyzed by this 
same method, many farmers might be found to be producing beef at 
costs far above the lowest possible, who could profit greatly merely 
by feeding the same total quantity of feed over a longer period of 
time, unless marketing conditions dictated the shorter period. 
Table 27. — Probable gain per day and total gains from feeding fixed total 
quantity in periods of different length to 835-pound steers 
(Com 
puted from Table 
20) 
Length of feeding period 
Daily input of — 
Daily 
gains 
Total output 
Corn 
Hay 
Beef 
Pork 
Beef 
Pork 
120 days _______ 
Pounds 
27.0 
21.5 
19.0 
15.4 
13.5 
Pounds 
8.0 
6.4 
5.6 
4.6 
4.0 
Pounds 
2,45 
2.04 
1.92 
1.74 
1.56 
Pounds 
0.32 
0.26 
0.22 
0.19 
0.17 
Pounds 
294 
306 
326 
365 
374 
Pounds 
38 
150 days __ ... 
38 
170 days... 
38 
210 days 
39 
240 days.. 
41 
Table 28. — Estimated eost of beef per 100 pounds of gain, feeding a fixed total 
quantity of feed in periods of different lengths 
(Gains from Table 27) 
Length of feeding period 
120 days 
1.50 days 
170 days 
210 days 
240 days 
Computation of costs per head 
Fixed 
costs- 
feed, 
etc. 
Dollars 
35. 40 
35.40 
35.40 
35.40 
35.40 
Variable 
costs- 
labor, 
etc. 
Dollars 
4.88 
6. 10 
6.91 
8.54 
9.76 
Deduc- 
tion for 
pork 
credits l 
Dollars 
3. 04 
3.04 
3.04 
3.12 
3.28 
Net 
total 
costs of 
gains 
Dollars 
37. 24 
38. 46 
39. 27 
40. 82 
41.88 
Beef 
gains 
Pounds 
294 
306 
326 
365 
374 
Net cost 
per 100 
pounds 
of gain 
Dollars 
12.67 
12. 57 
12. 05 
11. 18 
11.20 
Pork at 8 cents per pound. 
