EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VII 383 



attempt to utilize otiier tilings as substitutes for corn, and probably pro- 

 duce beef that is almost if not quite as good as that which we have 

 formerly made. 



The only men in our state who are complaining at the present time 

 of the cattle situation are those who put cattle on full feed early in the 

 year, with the intention of marketing them at the present time. Those 

 who have made the average, ordinary grades of beef, who have depended 

 upon grass-fed cattle as their source of income, or upon the handling of 

 cattle that had an outlet as feeders, have no criticism; but those men 

 who have full-fed their cattle and have tried to make the very best grade 

 of beef are not in the most happy frame of mind at the present time. 

 The only thing that seems to save them at all this year is the fact that 

 the hogs which they have fed in connection with the cattle have taken 

 care of a considerable proportion of the feed bill. 



Now, in the development of a breeding herd, we have two or three 

 things to consider. In the iirst place, we have the kind of stock — the ef- 

 ficiency of the animal itself — which must be taken into consideration, and 

 that, of course, is being improved from day to day. We are finding, for 

 instance, in our section of the country, that our farmers are feeding and 

 breeding and producing a better grade of cattle than they have ever pro- 

 duced in our sections of the country heretofore. I don't know whether 

 that is quite so true in sections where the cattle industry is not the 

 dominant industry, but in those sections of our state that are known as 

 cattle-producing sections, we find that there has been a tremendous im- 

 provement in the quality of the type and in the efficiency of the animals 

 that we have produced. 



We are getting our cattle to market at a younger age than we have 

 ever done heretofore. In our state it has been customary in the past 

 for us to handle four-year-old cattle almost exclusively. Last year we 

 found that we had to take three-year-old steers instead of four-year-olds, 

 because of the fact that the four-year-old steer was no longer available. 

 This year we find that there is practically another year eliminated from 

 the age of the cattle which are going into our feed lots for wintering, 

 with the intention of grazing them next summer, and the majority of our 

 graziers are having to stock up with two-year-old steers to utilize the 

 grass next summer. 



This is a condition which I think is general thruout the whole cattle 

 country. If we study it a little more carefully, we find that it is prob- 

 ably a logical sort of a situation. Those of us who have been in the 

 cattle and hog game all of our lives know that formerly it was our cus- 

 tom to market hogs at very much heavier weights than we are now doing 

 As a boy, I remember that we did not think a hog was hardly fit to eat 

 until he was nearly a year old. We did not think of putting him on the 

 market before he was a year old. We have gradually reduced the age, 

 with but slight reduction in the weight of the animal, until today it is 

 the exception ra'her than the rule for a hog to go to market after he is 

 a year old. The same thing has occurred in the handling of the sheep 

 and lambs on the market. My earliest recollection of sheep feeding was 



