476 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



Mr. Drury : To make twice that gain you have to keep the calf 

 twice as long as the steer. 



Mr. Brockway : The bunch of calves we had last spring were 

 just as fat tlie first of April as the first of July. They were 

 finished, rounded off and smooth as could be then, ready to go to 

 market any time. The steers would have to have a full feed of 

 corn five or six weeks to put that on. If you buy a good, well- 

 bred bunch of calves, they will flesh down at an early age, and you 

 can put the finish on just as early, I believe, as you can with the 

 big cattle. These calves coming off the cows are fat when you get 

 them, and I believe I can get them ready for market just as quickly 

 as I can any bunch of big cattle in the same condition. If you 

 feed them on a half ration of corn, with all the silage they can eat, 

 you will find that they will go right ahead and every calf will make 

 a good, reasonable gain. On a full feed of corn I never was able to 

 feed a bunch of steers that there would not be a foundered one for 

 some reason, you couldn't tell why. You feed hundreds of calves 

 at a time and have the whole bunch go straight ahead. I don't 

 know how you can beat a ration that will do that. 



The President : Wliat is your experience in the way of shrink 

 in bringing those calves here from Texas ? 



Mr. Brockway : The shrink is something fierce. A 400-pound 

 calf will shrink 50 pounds, without a doubt. They almost refuse 

 to eat or drink from the time they are loaded. 



Mr. Drury : Mr. Brockway can take his 1 ,000-pound steer, with 

 silage and cottonseed meal and a little corn fodder, and put two 

 pounds a day on it cheaper than he can on the calf by half. I am 

 not finding fault with your- argument. It is good business to 

 follow if a man is in shape to handle it, but the calf proposition is 

 the hardest one for a young man to start out on to make a suc- 

 cess of. 



Mr. Brockway: T can't say that I graduated, but I have fed 

 heavy cattle for years before I fed calves ; then I fed calves ; then 

 I fed heavy cattle again ; and now I am back to the calves. I 

 bought the first calves eight years ago in Texas and fed them a 

 number of years, and then fed heavy cattle. I bought my first 

 calves at $12 a head. They kept clim])iiig up to $18, and I thought 

 I couldn't afford to pay that much and Avent back to feeding heavy 

 cattle ; and T found the calves paid me higher profit than anything 

 T could put in llio feed lot; flial my calvos would make almost as 

 niiK'li gain pci- head as I lie calllo would. 



