Live Stock Breeders' Association. 139 



In order to economize in labor, it is necessary, of course, to 

 handle all the steers in a given bunch essentially alike, which means 

 that a certain amount of culling is required in order that all that 

 are to be kept shall belong to the same class and respond profitably 

 to the same treatment. Then it is only required that the treat- 

 ment given be that which is best adapted to the type of animals 

 involved. 



To breed steers of uniform type and tendencies, so that they 

 will not require heavy culling at weaning time or the following 

 spring, is one of the most difficult undertakings of the cattle raiser. 

 The beginner should not, however, be discouraged. Men have suc- 

 ceeded to a marked degree in this direction, but it has taken many 

 years of patient work and watching, and a liberal use of good blood. 



TWO PRINCIPAL CLASSES OF CATTLE RAISERS. 



The men who are breeding and raising cattle for beef in Mis- 

 souri may be divided into two principal classes, each requiring for 

 the best results radically different methods of procedure. The one 

 class is on the better corn land of the State, and the other on land 

 not so well adapted to corn, but primarily adapted to pasture pur- 

 poses. The men of the first class must rely upon full feeding 

 operations for their principal profits, while the other must get 

 through the winter as cheaply as possible and rely upon gains made 

 at pasture as the chief source of income. 



/. Raising Beef on High Priced Land. 



The first class represents the man on productive and high 

 priced land, with only a limited area of rough, untillable land for 

 pasture. Whatever pasture he has, therefore, is on land that is 

 well adapted to the growing of other crops. This class is by far 

 the more important in point of numbers and aggregate investment 

 in Missouri. 



Such men, as a rule, are long on corn and winter forage, and 

 generally limit their grazing area and facilities for summering 

 stock to the needs of their breeding herds and work stock. They 

 must, therefore, depend upon winter feeding for their main profits. 

 They have more forage and grain than would be required to merely 

 carry through the winter in stocker condition the animals they can 

 graze through the summer. It is true they might increase their 

 pasture area and cut down correspondingly their corn and forage 

 crop areas, but, broadly speaking, this sort of land is more profitably 

 grown in some hay or grain crop than run to pasture. In other 



