EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III. 101 



have sold them on a very mean margin. Now, that is the experience 

 of every feeder who has been long in the business, and will be the 

 experience of every feeder who remains in it. 



There is an element of chance in the business we cannot escape, 

 and the man that is not willing to take some risk, will never make 

 a cattle feeder. Buying, feeding and selling a steer for profit — 

 not that profit we think we get when we top the market with a load 

 of cattle — not the profit we get by a profitable experience — but 

 that profit in dollars and cents we want and need. The question 

 of profit in dollars and cents need not much concern the man who 

 owns his farm, is out of debt and has money with which to buy his 

 cattle. But with the average feeder who must borrow money to buy 

 his cattle and pay interest, as most of us feeders must in our 

 feeding operations, and struggling to pay for a farm and get out 

 of debt, the question of profit is one that greatly concerns him, 

 and should greatly concern him. 



The older feeders, the men who have made money in the cattle 

 feeding business, are today practically out of business, and the feed- 

 ing operations now on the farm, are conducted by their sons or 

 tenants on the farm. But when the landlord advises his sons or 

 tenants to feed cattle for profit, he must remember that conditions 

 have greatly changed since the time he made money out of the 

 business, and the system that was practically profitable a great 

 many years ago won't do today. So that we must adjust ourselves 

 to the conditions as we find them today. 



In every community there are men recognized as good cattle men. 

 There are others recognized as good hog men, and others that do 

 better with horses. Now I wouldn't advise you, if you do not 

 like cattle, to go into the cattle feeding business. I wouldn 't advise 

 you, if you want to get rich easy and quick, to go into the cattle 

 feeding business. But if you like the business, and will continue 

 at it one season after another, and handle such number of cattle 

 as you can handle to advantage, I think the business can be made 

 fairly profitable — and that is about all we are entitled to — a 

 fair profit on our business enterprise; that is about all the mer- 

 chants and business men today are doing; they are simply get- 

 ting a fair profit on their business. That is what we feeders 

 must be satisfied with, if we remain in the business. 



Now, as to the question of buying these cattle, I am often asked 

 what kind of cattle I like to feed or handle. I tell them I like 

 the color of a good steer; I like to feed good ones, but I would 

 rather feed a mean one and make two dollars, than to feed a 



