Never before in the history of agriculture have the prices of agricultural commodities fluctuated with such magnitude as they- have during the past 5 years. The cattle-feeding industry has been no exception. -During the period of January 1973 to-January ' 1977 the returns for feeding a Choice 450 lb. steer calf to 1050 lbs. have varied from a positive $130;03 to a negative $161.10.' Unfortunately, for .the cattle-feeder, 28 of'48 months during this 4 year period showed negative returns' for this ^type of-feeding program (1).