Real-Life Math
You're an animal nutritionist working with cattle rancher
Nora Spillman. Nora has just purchased a 500-pound steer at the October auction.
With your help, she will come up with a feeding plan over the winter to fatten
up this animal for butchering in early summer.
She figures that the
optimum time for the sale of her steer will be June 15. "This will be just
before the BBQs are fired up for the fourth of July weekend," says Ronald
Lemenager. He is an animal nutritionist. "Ranchers try and target times when
they will get higher prices."
Nora will feed the steer high-quality
hay over the winter. In late spring, she will begin supplementing her steer's
hay diet with grain so that the animal will be finished, or ready for market,
in June. She wonders how to introduce the grain to her animal, and consults
you.
Question A:
Nora would like her 500-pound steer to weigh 1,300
pounds by June 15. If there are 227 days from the date the calf was purchased
until it is butchered, how many pounds per day must the animal gain?
Question
B:
In the spring, you advise Nora to start giving the steer grain. You
introduce grain slowly to the animal, beginning by giving the amount of grain
that equals 1 percent of its body weight. At this time, the steer will weigh
1,000 pounds. You advise increasing this amount by 1.5 pounds every 3 days.
After 9 days, how much grain will Nora's steer be eating?