No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 163 



MR. FENSTERMACHER: Is that all the roughage they received? 



PROP. TOMHAVE: Yes, sir; and blue grass pasture during the 

 summer. Corn silage was figured at .f!3.50 per ton and cotton seed 

 meal at |32.00 and |e34.00 per ton. In the winter, the labor amounted 

 to 15.60 per head; through the summer it was practically nothing. 



We permit the calves to stay with the cows until they are from 

 six to eight months old. A good beef calf that weighs four to five 

 hundred pounds, is worth more than thirty dollars today. The 

 average weight of our calves at the time of weaning is from four 

 hundred and fifty to five hundred pounds, such a calf is worth more 

 than enough to pay for the cost of maintaining the cow. 



It is true that there are other things to be taken into considera- 

 tion. We must eliminate the cow that does not produce a calf, then 

 figure only from seventy to eighty per cent, of calves, so that the 

 cost of maintenance will probably be over forty dollars. On the 

 other hand, we are using a crop that would other^vise be unsaleable 

 and we find a ready market for an unsaleable product. I believe 

 that it would be advisable to add a small amount of hay, say mixed 

 clover hay, to the roughage, yet we have been able to observe no 

 ill efl'ects because of its absence. The calves that these cows pro- 

 duced were all healthy and vigorous. It is true that some of the 

 cows get a little thin when they are nursing their calves, but that 

 is to be expected. 



You will notice that we have made no allowance for depreciation 

 in value in this experiment. We have sold several of these cows and 

 obtained a good price on the Pittsburgh market. Cows weighing 

 twelve hundred pounds and fat will bring between seventy-five and 

 one hundred dollars. 



One of the questions that comes up in the minds of many of our 

 Pennsylvania farmers is whether or not it pays to feed beef cattle. 

 In answer to this I might say that we kept an accurate record of the 

 cost of feeding 178 head of cattle that were fed in an experimental 

 way at the Pennsylvania State College from 1908 to 1913. During 

 this time these cattle returned to the college an average profit of 

 15.00 per head after paying for the feed consumed. They returned 

 to the college 98 cents for every bushel of corn consumed. Some 

 years the cattle were fed at a loss while other years they made a 

 substantial profit. The man that expects to make money feeding 

 cattle must feed every year so as to be on the market with cattle 

 the good years as well as the poor years. I question very much 

 whether there is a farmer in the State of Pennsylvania who received 

 98 cents per bushel for all corn sold from the farm during this time. 

 Besides receiving this amount for the corn consumed a market was 

 found for a large amount of other products such as hay and silage 

 that could not have been sold to advantage. The fertility is also 

 returned on the farm. 



