TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 593 



I have had — you take fleshy cattle from the western states, it doesn't 

 matter whether they come from Nebraska, South Dakota or Kansas, or 

 where it is, but cattle off of what we call the long wild grass, don't come 

 to Iowa and do well on our blue grass in the middle of the summer, but 

 I have learned from long experience that cattle off of the short grass 

 from farther west, in the plains country, have always done well for me 

 That has been my experience in the last twenty-five years. But I found 

 that the cattle off of the long grass, if fed grain, will do very well. 1 

 know of a man that bought some cattle last spring, shipped in April, 

 that came from a wonderful country; they had as good a pasture as was 

 in Poweshiek county, or any other county, and they made only about 100 

 pounds gain during the summer. They were cattle that came from near 

 the Canadian line. 



There is another thing I found in my experience that I thought I 

 would mention here, and that is with regard to changing cattle from en- 

 silage to dry feed. If cattle are being fed ensilage and practically noth- 

 ing else, a change to dry feed is very bad for them, in my experience; 

 but if they have been fed ensilage once a day and corn once a day, they 

 seem to take to dry feed pretty well. But take cattle that have ensilage 

 and nothing else, they don't do well — as well as cattle that have been 

 fed on other feed. In saying this I don't want you to think I am con- 

 demning ensilage, but I think it is better to keep them on their regular 

 ration until they are ready for market. 



Voice : You are feeding something with the ensilage, are you 

 not? 



Mr. Cessna: Yes. Now there is another question. There are 

 a lot of old-time feeders here, and we are altogether feeding more 

 or less western cattle. From my experience, my advice is if a 

 man is feeding western cattle, put a sign on your gate: "No 

 strangers admitted," and you will find that you will get better 

 results. 



Voice : And no dogs allowed. 



Mr. Cessna : Yes, keep the dogs away. Any man knows that 

 anything that disturbs the cattle makes them restless a,nd they 

 get up and move around, and that means that half of the gain for 

 that day is lost. 



How to remedy this buying of feeding cattle, of getting on the 

 market at the right time, is a matter I can't help you in, but I 

 know one thing, if you study the market closer, if you make up 

 your mind to buy cattle on September 1st, watch market condi- 

 tions from August 15tli. If you find on September 1st, the day 

 that you had made up your mind to buy cattle, that the market 

 is too high, wait fifteen days, or thirty days, or, if necessary, two 



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