254 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE OS. DOc. 



pi-oblein. It will pay 1o keep the calves where 1lie (lies dotl't disturb 

 tlieni, a darkened shed during the day time and then they can graze 

 during the night or days when not disturbed. 



We like to have our calves come in the Fall rather than in the 

 Spring. By having them in the Fall or early Winter and in the 

 stable we have them under our eyes all the time and we see that they 

 properly Jiurse their dams. We don't let the calves run with the 

 cows. We put them to the cow and put them back. We feed him 

 Svith his dam and put him away. Thus your cow has fixed habits 

 «oJf letting down her milk, and if you care to milk that cow in after 

 years she has that tlxed habit ; whereas, a cow running in the field 

 with her calf is practically destroyed as a milk cow if you want to 

 use her afterwardvS for that purpose ; and then we constantly, see the 

 calves and know what they are doitig. We begin with shelled corn 

 and later add a little oats and then bran and then some oil meal, 

 if we can get it, and good hay and good fodder. 



Just a word about balanced rations. There is one thing about 

 feeding beef cattle. In most cases they are fed to the full. If 

 you put the feed where they can get it they will balance the ration 

 S'or yon. I am not going to advocate hard and fast rules along that 

 lilie. It may be unfashionable, it may not be scientific, but I have 

 noticed this in feeding our show cattle, if we want to get the highest 

 finish and highest results and greatest weight at the earliest age, 

 that we scarcely feed two of them alike. Those who have large 

 families and help the plates of the children, even if the children are 

 iall well, will recognize that you can hardly make up two plates 

 alike, it you make them all alike there will always be some dissatis- 

 i'actioti. A man who knows his children knows he need not put 

 «<:;ei*t'ain articles on all the plates. With stock it is just the same; 

 some want one thing and some another. 



By having the calves come in the Fall, when grass comes they are 

 just old enough to wean, and then you don't ever have any bawling 

 around. After you put them out for a few days it is all over. An- 

 other reason I like the Fall calf is this: That the first five or six 

 months of his age, when he is quite small, he has consumed very 

 little of your grain. He goes on grass w^hen he is of the age to 

 begin the consumption of feed and he eats the cheapest feed you have 

 on your farm, so the second six months of his age, when he begins 

 to work and consume something he is consuming your cheapest 

 product rather than otherwise. If you have him born in the Spring 

 he runs with his mother all the Summer, too little to eat much grass, 

 and at weaning time he comes on your expensive feed, corn and 

 grain. But if you are going to have Fall calves this necessitates a 

 warm place for feeding and housing. 



Now in regard to the sheltering of beef cattle: There is no class 

 that requires so simple shelter as beet cattle. Any old shed that 

 opens to the south and a protection from the west winds and rain 

 is satisfactory to these cattle after a year old or even after they are 

 six months old. I don't care anything about the cold, if they are 

 (dry and out of the wind. They take care of the cold if Avell fed 

 land make as good gain with good feed in the open sheds. If you 

 fire going to feed in an expensive manner, under high tension, or 

 If with silage to your beef cattle, then I think you will have to 

 have them more closely housed and it is then a problem th^t each 

 man will have to work out on his own farm. 



