Show sees small profit in cattle feadin feeding 9 outlook not promising for average breeder this coming spring it if prewar prices prevail for beef next spring there Is a chance for very tittle little profit from cattle feeding except where the better grades of cattle are fed concludes it T burdick associate economist at the colorado agricultural college the feeding of two year old steers was studied on a total of about 80 30 farms steers weighing an average of pounds when purchased made an average of pounds of gain in days at present prices of the feeds actually used the feed this winter would cost 1528 per head bead or per pounds of gain if the these sesame same steers could be put in inthe the feedlot this tall fall at 5 per hundredweight says burdick Burd lck charges for interest death loss and miscellaneous cash items plus man tabor labor water corrals and equipment horse labor and overhead would total per head or per hundredweight of gain with feed costing the total estimated cost per hundredweight of gain would approximate changes in feeding practice will effect this cost he adds for example one man using alfalfa corn wet beet pulp and pasture had costs itt 1931 prices which totaled tor for feed or 8 per hundredweight of gain others had feed costs close to this while some had higher costs assuming average gains an pound feeder steer would bellat sell at 1037 pounds at the end of days the costs listed above would require a sale price of f 0 b at the feed lot or a margin of to cover feed lot costs extra charges for marketing would require a higher price at the market early spring market prices at denver for the years 1904 to 1013 Indicate that for the month of march there was an average price of lerhun dweight for all classes of beef and as an average for april no records are available for the better grades of fat cattle chicago prices price for this period were apparently more than 1 per hindre hundredweight dweight above the reported denver prices these prices lf if duplicated this s spring rang show a chance tor for very little profit except where the better grades of cattle are fed since these grades bring better prices indications are that prices for beet beef are back to the prewar level consequently feeder cattle will have to be purchased at prewar prices in order to show a profit |