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Show ONSniERS NOW DEMAND j LIGHTER CUTS OF MEAT j i Agricultural Investigators who arej responsible for the planning of beef! cattle experimental work are turn-! ing their attention and energy quite! largely to problems concerning the-fattening the-fattening of young cattle, either calves cal-ves or yearlings, in an effort to ascertain ascer-tain the most satisfactory methods of producing beef from cattle of these ages. The great mass of feeci-j ing trials conducted with beef cattle! during the last quarter century ha,' been with reference to older cattle ; steers 2 1-2 years of age at the time they went on feed and in some c?.ses! 3 1-2 years of age. This is as it should be. says tnu I'nited States Department of Agri-' culture, in encouraging the experi-l mental work with the younger clas.-1 I of beef cattle. The beef-cattle indu.-try indu.-try is going through a marked chang. , at the present time, largely because! of the changing taste of the consum-1 ing public, which is now demanding lighter cuts of meat. Already this da- j muad has resulted in many retail n ;j ,'..-t s bundling only light careas- e b. -el. 'such as those c- yearling. Wh.r- "?ern:M'lv th- demand tee !-, aw e? -!e r-n-'l , be almost un Hf r e : -. i- true to.lay. "jfi r. -ay tl.ut i" to per n'ti. .,( '- t'r';-l r-et;t. of teef cattle, is - vai : 'o take en!-- .of the ce.U tor -avy. t-amiA-w. where., as the re-iiaiielei- U fon i-uttiV weighing fron 70 to 1 J 0A -,unds on foot, or cr.r-ea.-s s vthk.uwil' from 4 1 1 0 to r.Ou' lounds. This means thai the demand ii -ay is quite larg iy for cattle tinier tin-ier 2 years of age. Some littl" experimental work has V-en den"' with cattle of different The r-suts to date show that ; i-alve-- j. laced it the feed lot at wean e nme i(iid continued therein until I finished for market make from aO to ! 7 j p.--r cent ranr" gain from the ?amc ; feed than do more mature steers, es-' es-' necially those that are from 2 to 4 j years of age. This change is due to the fact that part of the gain in lignc -ii tile is growth of nonedible parts, whereas most of the gains in heavy 'teers is meat. 7r,-,r yearlings, 18 months old, "' :i!g from fiOO to 700 pounds, have been found to lie relatively efp.cient rs compared to old r cattle, although not iu a class with the calves from the standpoint e: economy of gain. |