468 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



and that its influence may spread and widen, and with implicit faith in 

 a successful future, I commend it to your care, and beg for it your 

 most enthusiastic support, assuring you that through such co-operation 

 you can best serve your personal interests. 

 I thank you. 



The following paper was then read by James M. Broekway, 

 Letts, Iowa: 



FEEDING TEXAS CALVES. 



BY JAMES BKOCKWAY. 



For many years the business of cattle feeding has been becoming 

 more and more a matter of speculation. The cattle feeder has not been 

 able to determine in advance if he would reap a harvest or if he would 

 find red ink in his bank account. 



We were taught by our fathers that the process of fattening cattle 

 was to buy our feeders in the fall or early winter, rough them through 

 on corn stalks, a little hay, and what was left of last summer's pasture. 

 This animal was invariably a three-year-old, he had finished growing, 

 and when summer time came plenty of grass, and the feed wagon, he 

 had nothing to do but to get fat. The three-year-old feeder is rarely 

 found now nor is the three-year-old bullock so popular on the markets. 

 Now it is the well-finished 800' to 1,000-pound baby beef that is the 

 favorite. 



Of late years the price of feeders and especially of heavy feeders has 

 been high. The price of the raw material has been so near the price 

 of the finished product that the margin of profit has been narrow and 

 uncertain. I do not believe that today there is another class of busi- 

 ness men who conduct business on a narrower margin of profits than 

 the cattle feeder. The feeder should be as much entitled to a reasonable 

 margin of profit as any other class of business men. I believe that a 

 feeder should have a reasonable price for his roughness, his grains and 

 l>is labor; and should have more to show for his profit than the value 

 of the manure left in the feed lot. 



For consistent success this element of speculation must be reduced 

 to the minimum and feeding brought to more of a production basis. 

 The corn belt feeder must become a real meat producer. As feeders 

 we are handling a more costly and higher priced equipment than our 

 fathers used. Our lands will produce no more and they represent ten 

 times as much capital. Our corn has no greater feeding value and it 

 costs fifty times as much. The price of a fat steer has turned several 

 somersaults, and last but not least we have no more cattle and we have 

 twice as many people to feed. 



Here and there is a man who seems to successfully pick the high and 

 low spots of the market, but this is not the case with the average 

 farmer feeder, he wishes to market on his farm the forage and grains 

 produced there and to do so in a safe and profitable manner. 



