Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-11-04
Beef or Mutton.
Kansas Farmer.

Kansas FARMER.
4 steer Weighing one thousand pounds
gross will require less food than any
number of sheep weighing in the aggre-
grte as much as the steer. In other
words, sheep require more food to the
1000 pounds Of live weight than steers
do. 1t is true, however, that out Of a
quantity of food sheep will make more
flesh than steer. Sir. j. B. Lawes got
60 pounds of water-free beef out of 100
pounds of water-free nutritive material,
and pounds Of waterfree mutton out of
the same amount of foOd-a difference
of One-third in favor of the sheep. In
live weight the figures stood 8 pounds of
steer to II pounds of sheep out Of 100
pounds Of dry food eaten.
This seems somewhat paradoxicaI. A
sheep requires more food in proportion,
taking 1000 pounds of live weight as the
standard, than steer does, and yet the
sheep makes more meat out Of the food
than the steer. Prof. Sanborn, of the
Missouri Agricultural College, estimates
the demand or sheep for food to excel,
for each 1000 pounds of live weight, that
of cattle by rs to IS per cent. yet, all
things considered, hundred pounds or
a thousand pounds of mutton costs less
L
beef.
the reasons why sheep, according to
live weight, eat more feed than do steers
are differently stated, though, perhaps,
any observer would concede the PROPOSE
ton after moments reflection. Say it
requires ten sheep to equal the weight of
one steer of 1000 pounds. There are ten
lives, ten separate organism, ten distinct
bodies to be supplied in one case, and
only one in the other, and the outside
surfaces of all the sheep would consider
ably exceed in area the outside surface
of the steer. The greatest waste of the
system is from the outside. Besides this,
the sheep is making a coat of wood all
the time and the steer is not 4 good
deal of food is required for the wool
alone. Good wool cannot be produced
without good feed and a good deal of it.
In estimating the cost OF mutton as
compared with beef it is proper to take
into consideration all these facts. The
ten sheep use up 1880 pounds of food
while the steer uses only 1000 pounds,
but the steer makes flesh only out of his
feed, while the sheep make wool also out
OF theirs. Putting the case as Prof. San
born does the point is easily SEEN "Giv-
en- 100 pounds each of live steer and sheep
at four cents pound, live weight, if we
subtract eight pounds Of wool at 20 cents
pound from cost of the sheep the dressed
carcass Of the steer, at 60 per cent.
shrinkage, will cost 6.66 cents per
pound; the dressed carcass of the sheep
will cost 4.61 cents per pound; or the
former cost ~ per cent. more than the
latter"
There is still another consideration. In
what is written above we have assumed
that the same kind of food is used in
both cases. 1t is well known, however,
that the sheep feeds largely on what is
rejected by the steer. And still another
fact is, that in tests of meat to their
relative shrinkage in cooking, NUT
ton looses less than beef. It is not
difficult, when pertinent facts are SO
readily found, to show that as a matter of
real profit, there IS more in sheep than in
cattle.