DiriSWX OF AXniAL HrSB.WDRY 315 



oESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



EXPERIMENTAL FARM, INDIAN HEAD, SASK. 



REPOET OE THE SUPERINTENDENT. T. J. HARRISON. B.S.A. 



BEEF CATTLE. 



Tlie l-erd of Shorthorns was formerly hnudled entirely as a beef herd, but in 

 fut'.irc the main work with cattle is the development of the dual-purpose Shorthorn, 

 while any individuals that are of decided beef type and conformation will be dealt 

 with as such. 



The cost of raising calves by hand will be compared with the cost of raising- 

 beef calves by rr.iiiihig with the cow. At present one cow is raising two calves and 

 doing justice to them. She really should be treated as a dual-purpose cow, but is of 

 such an i ;iiy disposition as to forbid milking by hand. Sometimes she objects even to 

 her own calf sucking her, let alone her foster calf, but as far as type is concerned she 

 is a very promising cow and so there are hopes of raising ono or two du•al-llurpo^^e 

 heifers from her. 



Duriu? last season there were sold from the Farm for breeding purposes, five 

 young bulls and one aged bull. 



STEER FEEDING EXPERIMENTS. 



Supplementary to the work with the beef herd, steer-feeding experiments were 

 conducted during the past winter. Fourteen two-year-old steers and fourteen three- 

 jear-olds were bought November, 1913. The former were apparently raised on farms, 

 while the latter were " range " steers and gave, as one would naturally expect, trouble 

 accordingly. Our experience with them would not warrant our attempting again 

 to fatten " range '' steers, especiaUy of that age. Stabling them even '' loose " is too 

 much of a contrast to their former existence to give good results, while tying them up 

 in stanchions is nothing but imprisonment. The care and handling was such as to 

 leave the suggestion that if steers of a like kind be bought again, they should be fed 

 loose outside. According to results in the following tables, where, among other com- 

 parisons, that of feeding outside and inside w- s reckoned, it was found that those 

 fed outside gave more satisfactory returns than those fed similarly inside. Those 

 .fed outside brought $7.35 per cwt., while those fed the same ration inside brought only 

 $7.25 per cwt. As far as weights were concerned there was nothing to choose between 

 these two groups, but the appearance of those fed outside was much in their favour 

 compared with the inside lot similarly fed. 



The steers were divided into four groups, and each group again subdivided into 

 two lots. This experiment comprised a comparison of two-year-olds and three-year- 

 olds, steers of similar ages fed inside compared with- tho-e fed outside and getting 

 th.e same feed, and also a comparison between different feeds. 



