6 
COLORADO EXPERIMENT STATION 
WEIGHTS AND GAINS OF STEERS FED THREE WINTERS AND 
THOSE FED TWO WINTERS 
Weight 
Steers Fed Each Winter 
Steers Fed Two Winters 
Weight 
Gain 
Weight 
Gain 
Fall of 1905 (Calves). 
404 
Spring of 1906. 
663 
259 
Fall of 1906. 
804 
141 
664 
Spring of 1907. 
1094 
290 
984 
Fall of 1907. 
1145 
62 
1046 
95 
Soring of 1908. 
1368 
223 
1407 
361 
You will note the heavy gain put on by the calves during the 
first winter's feeding—almost as much as they put on the next winter 
as yearlings. As a consequence, they weighed, the fall that they were 
yearlings, 140 pounds per head more than the steers of the same 
crop brought in from the range as yearlings. The next spring they 
were only 110 pounds heavier, the next fall 99 pounds heavier, and 
the spring they were marketed, 39 pounds lighter than the steers 
bro/ught from the range as yearlings. This gradual decrease in 
the margin between the two sets of steers indicates that the winter 
feeding as calves hastened the steers to maturity and consequently 
lessened their power for gain each successive season at a rapid rate. 
Another way to look at the question is to compare the gains 
made each year by the same lot of steers. The lot fed as calves made 
a gain of 400 pounds per head the first winter and succeeding sum¬ 
mer; the next year they made 352 pounds gain per head—already 
starting down hill you notice—and the last winter they made a 
gain of only 223 pounds per head, or 36 pounds per head less than 
they made the winter they were calves. 
Considering the year when they were one year old, they made 
a gain of 431 pounds as against a gain of 285 pounds when two- 
year-olds. And the steers that were not fed until they were yearlings 
made a gain of 456 pounds the year that they were twos. 
