22 BULLETIN "111, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Table 11. — summary of four years' summer fattening work — Continued. 
Group, ration, and year. 
Num- 
ber 
of 
steers. 
Davs 
fed. 
Aver- 
age 
total 
gain 
per 
head. 
Aver- 
age 
daily 
gain 
per 
head. 
Cost of 
feed 
per 100 
pounds 
gain. 
Cost of 
cattle 
per 100 
pounds. 
Selling 
price 
per 100 
pounds. 
Margin 
per 100 
pounds. 
Dress- 
ing 
per 
cent. 
Aver- 
age 
profit 
per 
head. 
II. Pasture and cottonseed 
cake: 
1912.... 
1913 
1915 
1916 
Average 
36 
26 
20 
30 
101 
147 
107 
134 
Lbs. 
129 
309 
214 
257 
Lbs. 
1.28 
2.10 
2.00 
1.92 
S5.32 
3.27 
3.44 
4.54 
S3. 87 
5.25 
5.00 
5.50 
S4.75 
6.00 
6.35 
6.10 
SO. 88 
.75 
1.35 
.60 
Per ct. 
51.62 
'50.' 80* 
54.21 
S4.61 
11.23 
9.61 
1.05 
122 
227 
1.83 
4.14 
4.90 
5 SO 
90 
52.21 
6 23 
III. Pasture with half cotton- 
seed cake and one-half corn 
chop: 2 
1912 
1913 
Average 
25 
2b 
106 
147 
143 
252 
1 35 
1.71 
5 14 
3.51 
3 87 
5.25 
4.75 
6.00 
.88 
.75 
51.91 
4.69 
8.27 
126 
198 
1.53 
4.32 
4.56 
5.37 
.815 
51.91 
6.48 
1 A loss. 
2 Corn-and-cob meal fed in 1913. 
The figures shown in Table 11 afford material for profitable study 
by farmers and feeders. It is seen that the steers in group I made 
gains very cheaply, but the total gains were not large and the steers 
did not take on a high finish. Their unfinished condition is reflected 
in the small margin on which they were sold and the low dressing per- 
centages. Thus the profits they returned were smaller than for the 
steers of the other two groups. 
The steers under group II made more rapid gains than the grass- 
fed cattle, but their gains cost more. However, they were better 
finished, as shown by the dressing percentages, and sold on the market 
for a higher price per hundredweight, which paid for the relatively 
expensive gains and returned a greater profit per head than was 
realized on the cattle in group I. . 
Since only two lots of steers were fed under group III, and because 
corn chop was fed to one and corn-and-cob meal to the other, the 
average results do not have the same weight as those of the first two 
groups. As they stand, the data show that the substitution of corn 
pound for pound for one-half of the cottonseed-cake allowance low- 
ered slightly the rate of gains and increased the cost of gains. The 
steers of this group, however, gained more rapidly, finished in better 
condition, and brought higher prices and a larger profit per head 
than those of group I. 
While the average profit per head for group III is greater than 
for the other two groups, a comparison of the profits of group II 
and III for 1912 and 1913 shows that the steers of group II returned 
the larger net profit per head for those two years. 
