518 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



difference what kind of an animal you buy. You might just as well 

 buy a Jersey steer as to buy a good Shorthorn or a Hereford steer 

 if you can buy cheap enough and sell high enough. Now, don't 

 anybody go away and say I advised feeding Jersey steers. If you 

 do I will regret that I have been so unsuccessful in making clear 

 my meaning. 



I want to call your attention to this fact: The breeders of 

 pure-bred beef cattle have believed honestly that the Shorthorn, 

 the Hereford and the Angus were more profitable to feed because 

 they could make more beef from a bushel of corn. Now, the breeder 

 of these cattle has talked that so long that you and I have believed 

 it, and if I should say to you that the average Holstein steer or the 

 scrub or long-horned Texas of the same age and condition will 

 produce as many pounds of beef for each bushel of corn, fed to him 

 as the Shorthorn or the Hereford you would question my state- 

 ment. Of course, you are all too polite to shake your heads while 

 I am looking, but I must say to you, gentlemen, that in all the 

 investigations that have been conducted it has been clearly demon- 

 strated that the difference between the good steer and the common 

 plain steer is not in their ability to make more beef from a bushel 

 of corn, but it is rather in the ability of the Shorthorn, the Here- 

 ford or the Angus to produce a better quality of beef. We feed a 

 certain amount of corn and hay and grass to a Shorthorn, Hereford 

 or Angus steer and he makes from that feed, porterhouse, sirloin 

 and prime of rib cuts which sell on the market for 35 cents or in 

 the eastern cities sometimes for 50 cents a pound. We feed the 

 same materials precisely to the Jersey or the scrub and he makes 

 from the same materials the same gain in weight, but he puts the 

 fat mostly around the internal organs, and he certainly does not 

 make sirloin, porterhouse and prime of ribs. He hasn't any place 

 to put any such cuts. He hasn't the back and the loins. So if 

 that is truthful we ought to be giving that consideration ; the fact 

 is, in feeding good beef cattle the feeder produces the animal that 

 sells for the higher price on the market and it sells for the higher 

 price on the market because they yield a better product and while 

 we may get the same gain per bushel of corn from even a Jersey 

 steer, the gain is much less valuable. I am not claiming the same 

 gain per animal, but the same gain per bushel of corn. The reason 

 we feed good cattle is because they bring higher prices on the 

 market. 



This is a pretty long address of welcome, Mr. President, but 

 I certainly appreciate your attendance at Farmers' Week. It has 



