352 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Now, again, iu the growing of beef cattle, it is not necessary to 

 have a closed bain, such as jou must have with dairy breeds, as 

 many of you know. After my calves are six mouths old, or more, 

 1 would prefer to have them iu a pen open toward the south; 

 closed on three sides if you can have it that way; and then have them 

 feed right out there in the pen. This is the ideal way, in my judg- 

 men, to feed steers right out there in the pen. If that calf has any 

 particular trend, you can see it, and will soon learn to know it, and as 

 a matter of fact, that calf will probablybewhatyoumakehimthetirst 

 six or eight months. I do not believe it necessary to carry stockers. 

 Vou hear it said that it is, but I do not agree with those who say so, 

 and after all, you simply have their word for it. You do not want 

 an animal that does nothing. You want a steer that will be born 

 to-day, and go to work to-morrow, and work until he goes to the 

 block; then you ha^e a steer that is doing something for you. That 

 is a steer that is worth having, and when you see one that can not do 

 it, the sooner you get rid of him the better it will be. 



Now, I think that one of the troubles in the steer feeding busi- 

 ness is that we have been practicing too much the teaching of critics, 

 and following experimental methods. A few years ago it was de- 

 clared the way to feed steers was to husk the corn, and then buy 

 some high priced feed to mix with it, and go to a whole lot of trouble 

 and expense. It can be done and it will make good steers. There 

 is no doubt about that. I think, however, that you will find condi- 

 tions here very much like in the west, — that it costs money to husk 

 the corn and grind it up and feed it to the steers. It is adding 

 about one-third of the cost of the corn to it, and you do not receive 

 anything like one-third more value in results. Indeed, it is not 

 shown that you have added much to the feeding value, if anything. 

 I remember distinctly, some six or eight years ago, advocating the 

 return to the older and simpler methods before the Illinois Live- 

 stock Breeders' Association, and I don't know when I have had as 

 brisk a currying down as I received there that day at the hands of 

 some of those — what shall I call them, scientific farmers? — if these 

 learned men here will pardon me, I will let it stand. They said it 

 was too much like an old fogy way, but I want to say to you that 

 the Illinois Experiment Station has been following some of these 

 methods, and they have found out that the old fogy ways were the 

 best after all. They found they did not g'et any better results by 

 feeding broken corn than they did by feeding in the old fashioned 

 way, the corn iu box with the fodder. I admit that you will gain 

 a little more, apparently by the other method, but if you will follow 

 out the case, you will find that in the end you have lost especially 

 when corn is not too high priced, and even with corn as high as it 

 has been this year, it is poor economy, in my judgment, to grind that 

 corn and shred that fodder. You must remember it takes time to 

 feed in that way, and then it costs to get the corn ground. With us 

 it costs 5c per hundred. Then you have to add the cost of the ma- 

 chinery. At least this is the case with us farmers in Ohio, and I 

 don't think it is different in Pennsylvania. So I don't think they 

 can establish that it pays to feed cattle in this way, or that it is a 

 better method than feeding the cattle in open pens where the man 

 can watch them feeding, and become acquainted with them. 



