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 \u27 1977 the returns for feeding a Choice 450 lb. steer calf to 1050 lbs. have varied from a positive 130;03toanegative161.10.\u27 Unfortunately, for .the cattle-feeder, 28 of\u2748 months during this 4 year period showed negative returns\u27 for this ^type of-feeding program (1)