— 3 o — 
ages of steers. But the older steers have eaten so much 
more food than the younger as to make nearly two dollars 
and a half difference per head in the profits of the feeding. 
This is notwithstanding the fact that the older steers sold 
at an average higher price per pound. When figured on to 
return per ton for alfalfa, the difference is ever greater, the 
youngest steers doubling the return from the oldest. 
If instead of starting December 27, the estimate is 
made from the time the steers reached the farm, the results 
are much the same and are given below : 
First 
cost. 
Selling 
price in 
Denver 
Excess of sel- 
ing price over 
first cost. 
Value of all 
food eaten. 
Profit per 
steer. 
Return for alfalfa 
per ton. 
Four-year-olds . 
$37 43 
$51 67 
$14 24 
$11 19 
$3 05 
$ 6 20 
Two-year-olds .. 
2(5 73 
37 83 
11 10 
7 17 
3 93 
10 00 
Yearlings. 
16 87 
29 27 
12 40 
6 94 
5 46 
12 30 
SUMMARY OF COMPARISON BY AGE. 
These results can be summarized and show that the 
four-year-old steers grew the fastest; or, a better expres¬ 
sion would be, that they gained in live weight the fastest, 
since they had already grown their frame and on our feed¬ 
ing, they were putting on flesh and fat. At the same time 
these old and large steers ate a large quantity of food, the 
amount as compared with the smaller steers being nearly 
proportional to their live weights. The extra feed more 
than overbalanced the more rapid growth and made the 
amount of food eaten for each pound of growth and the 
cost of this food the largest of the three classes. 
The shrinkage in shipping the large steers was about as 
much more than that for the small steers as they had gained 
more in live weight. So that the three classes in Denver 
weighed each about the same number of pounds more than 
when first put on feed. 
In total net profit and in amount returned for alfalfa, 
the large steers show the poorest returns, and the smaller 
steers the best. 
The important lesson to be learned from this test is, 
that well-bred steers that have been wintered on hay the 
first season can be profitably fed for beef and marketed 
when they are coming two years old. I his cuts off from 
one to two years from the present common method of run¬ 
ning cattle on the range. It allows more head of stock to 
be kept on a given range and adds at least one-half to the 
number that can be turned off each year. 
