KAISING AND FATTENING BEEF CALVES IN ALABAMA. I 
to place. They were raised to an age of 9§ months on this farm at a 
cost of S3. 12 a hundredweight. On a second farm it may cost more, 
and on a third it may cost less. Each item noted above may not be 
duplicated upon another farm. The pasture rent, the taxes, the 
interest, the prices of feeds, and the cost of labor all vary in different 
localities. 
When these calves had reached an approximate age of 9 J months 
they had attained an average weight of 460 pounds. While this is 
not a heavy weight, still it is much greater than that usually attained 
by native Alabama calves. In the experimental work carried on in 
cooperation with Mr. Kernachan, of Sheffield, Ala., the calves, at 12 
months of age, had reached an average weight of only 402 pounds. 
Those calves, however, were infested with cattle ticks, which no 
doubt very materially impeded the rate of growth. 
By the time the calves had reached an average age of 9 J months, 
each one had cost $14.36, or $3.12 per hundredweight. These figures 
include the cost of all the feeds which were given to both the cows and 
the calves, the rent on the pasture, the taxes, and interest on the 
money invested in the cattle, the labor required to care for and feed 
both the cows and the offspring, and 10 per cent depreciation in 
value of the breeding herd. The cattle were not credited with the 
manure produced, as there was no way to determine this factor accu- 
rately. 
THE FATTENING PERIOD. 
The calves were raised to the fattening period, at a cost of $14.36 
each. On that date they had attained an average weight of 460 
pounds, sr it cost $3.12 a hundredweight to raise them. They were 
consequently entered in the fattening period at an initial cost of 
$3.12 per hundredweight. 
There was a total of 64 calves in the herd, but all of them were 
not fattened for the market. The owner wished to build up the 
breeding herd, so 15 of the best heifers were kept on the farm. The 
remaining 49 calves were placed in the feed lot and given a ration 
of cottonseed meal, corn silage, and broom-sedge hay. The 15 
heifers which were left on the farm were valued at $15 each. This 
figure is incorporated later in the financial statement as a credit 
to the increase in value of the herd. 
The fattening period proper began January 17, 1912, although the 
calves had been on a ration of cottonseed meal, corn silage, and 
broom-sedge hay since December 21. A short time was necessarily 
required to get the animals accustomed to their new feeds. The cost 
of the feeds they ate during the preliminary period from December 
21 to January 17 was charged against the cost of raising the calves, 
and not against the cost of fattening. At the beginning of the test 
