564 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the herd — the one that is to beget the calves that you are going to show. 

 There are very few bulls that are able to beget a very large percentage of 

 show calves, and it is only by going into the very highest-priced ones and 

 those of the very best breed, and those that have the very best pedigrees 

 behind them, that one will be able to do this. A sire that will get even a 

 very small per cent, of show calves is of more value than the ordinary 

 farmer will think he is. 



The next thing is the selection of the herd that you are going to show. 

 It isn't an easy matter to look at a lot of calves and tell just which ones 

 are going to feed the best and come out and develop the best. Any one 

 who tries it will meet with a great many disappointments. We get our 

 eyes on them and think they are just what we want, and perhaps in a 

 few montlis they lose their form, and we have to select something else. 



Care should be taken in breeding, so that the cows will drop their 

 calves from the 1st of September to the middle of February. This gives 

 you an opportunity to fill both the senior and junior classes in the show 

 ring. The senior class is composed of calves that are dropped from the 

 1st of September to the 1st of January. The junior class consists of calves 

 dropped any time after the 1st of January. It is well to have a large pro- 

 portion of calves dropped between those dates. It gives you a large lot 

 to select your calves from. After they are sixty or ninety days old we 

 should know just exactly what we want to put in the show ring, and if 

 the dam isn't giving all the milk they will take, a nurse-cow should be 

 provided. It isn't at all easy to give them this increased supply of milk. 

 It should be done gradually. I have known some very promising calves 

 to be practically ruined for show purposes right at this point. In the 

 meantime, they ought to take a mixture of feeds such as we give, and then 

 they are getting milk from two cows and two feeds of grain mixture 

 per day. They also have all the alfalfa hay they want and soon learn to 

 eat a little of this feed. From this time on until they are eight or nine 

 months old they are carried along in just this way, but perhaps sixty or 

 ninety days before they are shipped out to the shows they are given an 

 extra feed. We give them three feeds a day instead of two, adding one 

 feed at noon, until they are twelve months old. If they are doing well, 

 they should be gaining about a hundred pounds per month, so that when 

 they go into the show ring, in September, all the way from ten to twelve 

 and thirteen months old possibly, they should very nearly weigh a hundred 

 pounds per month. Usually the best of them weigh about that. 



About the 1st of June, when the sun is hot and flies are bad, we take 

 them up and keep them in the barn and stables during the day, letting 

 them out at night. My own practice is not to let them have any green 

 feed at all after this time, but keep them in dry lots and feed them roots, 

 which take its place. They do well on these. The older cattle are pro- 

 vided with good, running box stalls and plenty of bedding. We always 

 give our show stock plenty of good bedding. 



During the last two or three months before we go into the show ring 

 there is a good deal of time and a good deal pf labor expended in training 

 th ecalves to show themselves, so that if they are placed in one position 



