484 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



Q. Isn't twelve pounds of slielled corn to a calf a f^ood feed? 



Captain Smith : It is a good feed. 



Q. How mnch oil meal in addition 1 



Captain Smith : One pound and a half. 



Q. Don't you think the last would not get as much as the 

 first? 



Captain Smith: I don't know whether any of you are in the 

 habit of watching cattle carefully, hut if you' do, you will notice 

 they nearly always eat in the same place every day and at the same 

 time ; and if you have plenty of rack room these calves get in the 

 habit of going to the same place all the time. If you have 365 

 calves, and the racks are empty in the morning, it stands to reason 

 that the hungriest steers have got the most. 



Q. As I understand it, you don't aim to feed a full feed of 

 grain at one time, but you aim to give them all the roughage they 

 will eat. I understood you to say the racks were empty. Is that 

 because they have just enough, or are they hungry? 



Captain Smith: If you watch your cattle carefully, if you 

 feed them heavily, for two or three days they will eat abnormally, 

 and then all of a sudden they will go off feed and they won't clean 

 up the racks; but if you slowly increase your hay or ensilage every 

 few days, you will get these calves up, and on 100 calves five 

 bushels will make a difference, and you will see it. They have 

 practically had their limit within a few bushels, and it is that odd 

 few bushels that the steers gorge on. We never give a steer all 

 the grain he will eat. I have 250 big steers and they are getting 

 11 pounds of corn. I feed all my oats in the sheaf; we never think 

 of threshing. 



The President : The next number on our program is Pi'of. W. II. 

 PcAV, the head of our Animal Husbandry Department at Ames, on 

 "Modern I\I(>thods of Beef Production." 



MODERN METHODS OF BEEF PRODUCTION. 



V.Y W. II. PEW. 



Professor of Animal Husbandry, Iowa State College. 



Modern conditions demand modern methods. Not so many years ago, 

 a farmer or feeder never thonght of using his pencil and paper to 

 figure his cost of gains on cattle or total profit or loss. The only records 

 he had were in his check hook stub. 



