PROCEEDINGS CORN BELT MEAT PRODUCERS' ASSN. 577 



In his sleeves, which were long, 

 There were twenty-four packs, 

 Which was coming it strong, 

 Yet I tell you the facts, 

 (Laughter.) 



Sc, to tell you anything about feeding cattle to make you money is some- 

 thing I couldn't do, but I will read what little I have prepared, and I 

 have only just hit a few high spots. There are a lot of details I could 

 have gone into, but I think that is unnecessary to a bunch of cattle feeders. 

 This seems to be a very inopportune time to try to say anything of 

 profit to the cattle feeder, yet we have found out by mighty dear experi- 

 ence that it is not the most profitable time to prepare for war during war 

 times. While these are not peace times exactly, it might be a good time 

 to take stock of what we are doing. 



What about the corn that is being piled up on our farms? What about 

 continuing to pile it up another year? What about converting this corn 

 into meat? What aTjout the rotation of crops on our farms? Wouldn't 

 we be considerably ahead in the long run by, instead of going on as many 

 of us are doing today, piling up corn into a visible supply, from fifty- 

 bushels-to-the-acre land, use part of the money we are spending for storage 

 into clover seed, and by so doing lessen the visible supply and instead 

 have an invisible supply of at least twenty bushels to the acre stored up 

 in the fertility of our soil? One crop of clover may not be able to increase 

 our corn yield 40 per cent, but a good crop of clover and plenty of manure 

 will work wonders. But, I think you see the point I wish to make, and 

 that is, while we are unable to make a dollar pay our debts, let alone put 

 anything in the bank, we can with little expense, store up many dollars 

 that we can draw on in the future. 



These times may drag on for quite a while, but there is a time coming 

 when there will be a reward for every bit of fertility we store up in our 

 soil. 



With the feeding of beef cattle we may divide the subject into three 

 general classes: The feeding of heavy cattle, the feeding of light or 

 medium cattle, and the feeding of baby beeves. I believe to make the 

 most money each class will require a somewhat different treatment. 

 The man who buys heavy cattle, 1,000 to 1,200 pounds, usually intends to 

 make a fairly quick turn and feeds them accordingly. The price of corn 

 enters into his calculations more than it does into those of the feeder of 

 lighter cattle. He gets them on full feed as soon as he can and puts the 

 corn into them, especially If they come from the short grass country. 

 He will, of course, give them roughness, and maybe cottonseed or oil 

 meal, but they are supposed to have their frame already established, so 

 what they need is fat, and that is in the corn. 



I do not know that this is the time to talk about the feeding of lighter 

 cattle, 600 to 800 pounds, for I would not be at all surprised if heavy 

 cattle would outsell light cattle during a good part of this year if the 

 statistics on cattle shipped to the country for the last six months are 

 reliable. 



37 



