€06 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Nelson handles a good class of calves and believes that a satisfied 

 customer is the best advertisement. I bought a bunch of heifer calves 

 from him and Mr. Sotham. in 1902 which are of Hereford breeding and 

 mostly of the C. S. brand and a few of the Y. brand. They were Panhandle 

 calves and develoijed into a grand lot of cows. They have their first 

 calves at foot now, and a very promising lot of calves they are. 



I also helped my brother to buy a nice load of yearling Hereford steers 

 from him at Fort Madison which have done well and for uniformity are 

 hard to beat. It is a safe plan for one who intends buying calves at a 

 public auction and is not well posted to let such men as have bought 

 there before buy a few loads, and then buy that class of calves at close 

 to thtir figure; but never get excited if somebody runs a load up in price 

 out of reason, and we must always remember that Chicago buyers never 

 ask us what we have paid for the stuff at the beginning. An unreason- 

 able price is not desirable for the seller either, as it may cripple the 

 sale, and calves should sell on their merits, which, however, does not 

 always mean size; it is rather in the breeding; but it is better to pay a 

 little too much for a good calf than to take inferior ones because they are 

 to be had for less money. A dollar looks big in the price of a calf, but 

 the good one may outsell the other by $10 to $15 when finished. Let 

 mean ones alone. 



Having secured calves we must be very careful in getting them start- 

 ed on a grain feed. To be sure if we see the little things eat we are 

 tempted to give them a little more, but that is wrong; a calf's stomach 

 is small and must be expanded by giving it all the good roughing it wants 

 and a little grain thereafter; but if we stuff it with grain a calf soon 

 feels satisfied and does not eat enough roughness, and of this we must 

 keep it full always and give plenty of water. Grain may be increased 

 slowly or fast according to the time one wishes to finish, but quick finish 

 on a heavy grain ration may check growth. 



In my opinion it would be wise for many farmers in the corn-belt to 

 take time by the forelock and buy some of those well-bred range heifers 

 for breeding purposes, as long as they can be had at beef price, and 

 /.-itart breeding good beef calves, by the use of pure-bred bulls. 



What a sad story. is told in a few words, to him who can read between 

 the lines, in your article in issue of Sept. 6 which is headed, "Good Beef 

 Calves Scarce." "Where are the good calves we got so plentifully in 

 former years," a feeder buyer asked, and there were none among his 

 auditors who could throw any light on the problem. I was on the 

 Chicago market some little time ago, with a load of cattle in which I 

 had a few cows which I considered not good enough to raise beef calves 

 and I was surprised to find but very few cows on the market which _ 

 were of better breeding from the standpoint of the beef maker. Th^ 

 dairy type was predominant, but I saw very good cows in the western 

 division. I had an idea then that it would be lost time to hunt for a 

 load of good calves, and if there had remained any doubt a glance over 

 the bull pens would have soon removed it. I found the content of 

 fourteen pens to be of very miscellaneous breeding, 87 bulls all told, 

 only six of which showed good breeding and about a dozen grades of 



