TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 153 



I do wish to say something concerning the length of the feeding period 

 Unless a man has good to choice feeders, it will not pay him to make a 

 a long feed. The so-called "corn-crib cross" will not make a prime carcass 

 out of a plain steer. The feeder who tries to make plain bred cattle good 

 by a long feeding period gets poorer instead of richer. With the average 

 grade of cattle and with the average feeder, a 90 to 130-day feed, and often- 

 times even shorter than this, is best. It is often profitable to sort out the 

 tops and feed them for a longer period, but it is not a good practice to sell 

 the good cattle and feed the scrubs longer in the vain hope of making them 

 good. With the exception of those who feed good to choice steers, the 

 feeders throughout the state who have stuck consistently by the short to 

 medium period of feeding have made the most money. One of the most 

 common mistakes made by beginners is to try to make inferior cattle good 

 by a long feed. 



The time to market is a question which every feeder must decide for 

 himself, and which depends, as already stated, largely upon the grade of 

 stock he is feeding. Holding for higher markets does not pay in the long 

 run. The grain grower can dictate very largely what he will receive 

 for the product of his labors. If the price is not forthcoming, he stores his 

 grain in the elevator and waits. Not so with the stock producer. When 

 his stock are fat, he must sell or feed at a loss, and he must sell at the 

 other fellow's price. A few extra cattle on the Chicago market puts values 

 on the toboggan. The juggling of the live stock market up and down, 

 back and forth, from 10 to 50 cents and more a hundred, has discouraged 

 many beef producers. When the most astute, experienced feeder has such 

 great difficulty in foretelling market conditions, it is a hazardous under- 

 taking, indeed, for the beginner. 



It is easy to diagnose the case, but difficult to present a remedy. Co- 

 operative packing plants will probably help solve the riddle in time. We 

 should at least have packing plants closer to home. Iowa, the great stock 

 producing state in the Union, ships most of her stock to other states to be 

 butchered, and by so doing she not only pays toll to the railroads, but 

 also robs herself of an important industry. If the meat-producing animals 

 that are raised in Iowa could be slaughtered here, it would provide labor 

 for thousands of families, build up home industries, increase the price of 

 land, lower the cost of the finished product to the consumer, and make a 

 market for our surplus produce. Some day this present period will be 

 cited as an example of needless extravagance, when farmers shipped their 

 live stock 200 to 400 miles to have it butchered, incurring thereby added 

 expenses due to shipping and to shrinkage. Not only are our fattened 

 stock shipped out of the state, but a large number of our feeders are ship- 

 ped back into the state over the same route. Thousands of feeding cattle 

 are picked up on the farms of Iowa, given a round-trip ticket to Chicago, 

 with feed bills and commission added, and then fed out to some Iowa farm. 

 Feeding cattle go through this state to Chicago by the train-load, and are 

 then gathered up and shipped back to Iowa. 



Such a system is not economic, and the present cattle feeding situation 

 demands that some change be made. Calves grown in Iowa should be 

 fattened in Iowa without any intervening car ride. The remedy lies in 



