298 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



Of course corn or ground barley will force the animal along faster 

 in the last month or two, but it is liable to get more flesh than 

 quality. During the summer months you should use a great deal 

 of grass. Nothing will cool off an animal like grass. During the 

 winter months you should feed roots or silage. Silage will do very 

 well, but will never replace roots. About the same kind of a ration 

 should be fed during the winter as during the summer months. 



I think the hardest animal to fit for show purposes is the 

 steer. I think the hardest process any feeder has is to produce a 

 grand champion steer. There is a time (some people say there is a 

 day, an hour) when the steer is right; but I think you can get it 

 right and hold it for a month or two in pretty good condition. A 

 steer must have a certain quality of flesh — not too soft or too 

 hard. There is a certain degree which we must have if we are 

 going to make prize winners, and it is hard to get that. There are 

 two or three very simple things which will help us : One is to cook 

 wheat or barley — both will help firming; another is to feed bean 

 meal or pea meal — either of these will firm an animal up better than 

 wheat or barley. In feeding bean meal or pea meal, you should 

 never use beans or peas until they are at least one year old. Don't 

 use the new crop ; they will not give as good results as one year old. 

 In fitting a show steer, especially for the International, in Decem- 

 ber, it is very important that he be carried along nicely the previous 

 winter. We aim to feed them largely on roughage clover hay, 

 alfalfa, some corn, a great deal of oats, wheat bran, some oil meal 

 (but not a great deal, as it tends to soften the flesh). A very im- 

 portant thing which we must keep in mind is to give them plenty 

 of outdoor exercise — give them exercise every day. If you have a 

 good grass lot on which there is a considerable amount of old grass, 

 that will serve a very useful purpose in growing out the animal. 

 When summer time comes on, we allow our cattle the run of the 

 grass lot during the day in the early months when there are not 

 so many flies and it is not so hot ; and after the weather gets hot we 

 keep them in the barn during the day and allow them the run of the 

 grass lot at night. We aim to give them grass all the time. Grass 

 will cool off the system and saccharize the food, and that is an 

 important factor. During the summer months we do not feed very 

 much corn, and very little oil meal, because grass will saccharize 

 the food. We feed oats, some barley — not much grain. About the 

 middle of August we commence getting the feeding going. We 

 get the animals on good feed in September. September, October 



