376 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Steer out in first-class condition to turn on grass. A steer that will weigh 

 seven hundred and fifty to eight hundred pounds October 1st should weigh 

 nine hundred or nine hundred and fifty by the 1st of May. It will take 

 fifteen to twenty bushels of corn with roughness to produce this gain, but 

 the steer will be in condition to make a good gain on grass. Would turn 

 out on pasture about 1st of May, but continue to feed corn and hay for two 

 or three weeks. Snap corn is the very best feed at this time. Would then 

 discontinue feeding grain for about two months if the pasture is good; as I 

 think the most economical gains are made on good pasture without grain. 

 Would commence feeding some grain about the middle of July. From ten 

 to fifteen pounds shelled corn; feed once a day, always in the evening, until 

 new corn is in condition to feed. Would then continue feeding snap corn as 

 long as the cattle will eat it readily without shelling the corn off the cob, 

 which will be about the middle of November. Would then start them 

 gradually on shelled corn; would also feed some oats. Think it is advisable 

 to feed oilmeal the last four or five weeks, not over two pounds a day per 

 head. If you have clover hay in connection with this I think you have a 

 combination of feeds that are good enough without the use of stock foods 

 and mill feed. 



If your cattle have done well by the middle of January they will weigh 

 about fourteen hundred or fourteen hundred and fifty, and if you used good 

 judgment in selecting your feeders they will sell under ordinary conditions 

 within forty or fifty cents of the top of the Chicago market. 



Greater gains than this is possible. However, two pounds per day from 

 the 1st of May, with this amount of grain is a very good gain. The cattle 

 probably will consume sixty or seventy bushels of corn during the entire 

 period of fifteen or sixteen months. By this method you obtain the greatest 

 amount of gain possible on grass and roughness. During the past year I 

 fed 100 head of steers following this method exactly and got an average 

 daily gain of two pounds per head from May 1st until January 5th when 

 they sold within thirty cents of the top of the Chicago market. 



Fed fifty head in 1903 with equally as good results although a great deal 

 of complaint was made that year about the feeding qualities of the corn. 

 Made a longer feed that year than I intended with hopes for a better market 

 which failed to come. However, thirty-eight head of those cattle sold March 

 24th at $5.35, fifteen cents below top for that day on the Chicago market. 



I think that every progressive farmer in Calhoun county should and can 

 profitably feed a limited number of cattle each year and by so doing keep 

 your land up in highest state of production. And by frequently changing 

 your ground from clover to corn andlusing Professor Holden's method of im- 

 proving your seed corn you can increase the yield of your corn thirty-five 

 per cent. 



And I firmly believe we will see confidence again restored to the feeding 

 business of Calhoun county. And peace and prosperity once more control 

 this the greatest industry of our State. 



