Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 533 



ers to dispose of the heifers at an earHer age than steers unless 

 they are to be retained for breeding purposes. There is very little 

 difference in value as yearlings, but after they have passed the 

 yearling stage we find that the differences become very great. 



While the cost of the cattle in many instances does not look 

 very large as compared with the cost of production, in the feeding 

 of beef cattle or in the growing of beef cattle it is necessary that 

 the man own the land, that he be just as good a farmer as the 

 farmer that is growing grain, that he must make just as much out 

 of his farming operations as the man who handles grain and sells 

 it directly from the farm. All the value he gets over and above 

 the value of the feed that he has put into his cattle just means 

 that much additional profit during the year. That is, he has the 

 same profit as the grain farmer and the additional profit from the 

 handling of the cattle. He increases the fertility of the soil so 

 that he can produce greater crops from year to year. 



I have been out of college eight years — it will be eight years 

 next June. I have done seven years of experimental feeding in 

 Indiana, in Pennsylvania and in Kansas. During each of those 

 eight years I have fed on an average of about 120 cattle and have 

 kept a complete financial record of the cost of feeds and cattle dur- 

 ing that time. In summing up the other day the average results 

 of this work, I found that when we took the full value that the 

 cattle feeder pays to the farmer for corn, its feeding value was 

 30 cents over and above the average market value of the corn at 

 the time of feeding. In other words, this profit of 30 cents over 

 and above the market value has been larger than the average profit 

 of growing corn. This is one of the chief sources of profit in feed- 

 ing cattle. 



There are other factors that we may take into consideration 

 in discussing this subject. Whenever the live stock industry has 

 been eliminated from the agriculture of any community, we find a 

 decadence not only in the farms themselves, but in the stock of the 

 people of the country. We find that when the live stock is eliminated 

 it means abandoned farms. We find it in the southern part of 

 Europe; we find it in Russia, and we find it in this country in cer- 

 tain sections of the east and south. Whenever we find live stock 

 kept up to its fullest possibile capacity, we find a greater yield of 

 crops and we find better citizens on the farms. If for no other 

 reason, that alone would justify us in, making every possible effort 

 to keep up the production of cattle. I believe that where animals 



