SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 581 



winter and he was told such calves would not come in heat, but the unex- 

 pected happened and began with a few of the larger ones. He thought 

 it wise to buy a bull calf and turn him loose with them; soon he found 

 he had to have a second bull, and in time a third one was necessary. 

 The young things were not sure and it was a costly lesson; nevertheless 

 they an were settled at last and a grand bunch of calves they were when I 

 saw them in June. 



If baby beef is made for the spring and early summer market the heifer 

 calf is more resireable than the steer, as she finishes quicker and even 

 if not quite finished will relatively sell better than the steer in the same 

 stage of finish and she can thus be got out of the way before the rush of 

 work sets in. 



The 80 to 160-acre farm on the level prairie with good buildings and a 

 careful master should be the ideal place for the making of baby beef, es- 

 pecially so of heifer beef. As a rule such farmers grow good crops oV 

 corn, oats and clover hay, which together form a good ration for calves 

 and if some corn is cut and perhaps shredded and oat straw fed there is 

 an abundance of good roughness as well as variety. This class of farm- 

 ers have but little work in winter and can take care of some calves and 

 hogs very nicely, and if they lay in good-sized calves early in the fall they 

 can have them on the market in April or May, when as a rule light fat 

 cattle selT well. If the prairie farm is the ideal place to make baby beef 

 it is not the only place; on the contrary the more rolling ground has 

 advantages as well. 



J. G. Imboden says: "Waste nothing in feeding roughness by giving 

 ^nore than they will eat." This may be applied where no other cattle 

 are kept than calves, but if a breeding herd is kept it is better to give 

 calves plenty of roughness, and let them eat a couple of hours in the morn- 

 ing, then turn them into anothei lot and let the breeding herd follow the 

 calves to clean up; feed calves in the other lot and again change at night; 

 thus the calves always get the best and the cows will keep mangers and 

 troughs clean and sweet. At present the two-year-old steer claims the 

 right to be fattened on the rolling ground, which has generally lots of 

 fall pasture to be eaten, also stalk fields to be cleaned out after husking, 

 and if the corn should fall a little short, it can be bought on the nearby 

 prairies at market price to be delivered. The two-year-old steer does this 

 cleaning up with much satisfaction and profit to himself and sometimes to 

 his owner, but a calf intended for the feed-lot cannot lose time in the 

 stalk-fields. If good breeding cows are kept in place of aged steers they 

 will clean the field while their calves are w6aned and afterwards will 

 follow the calves to clean their troughs and mangers and by so doing go 

 through winter in good shape to bring forth a new crop of calves, which 

 will fill the feed-lot again when the former crop goes to market. 



As long as Corn-belt farmers can afford to let untold tons of first-class 

 feed go to waste by not cutting their corn there is little danger that a 

 man who cuts most or all of his crop for feed will get hurt financially if 

 he keeps a good breeding herd for the purpose of producing calves fit to 

 be finished for the market as baby beef. 



