EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III. 103 



other men who have always bought prime cattle and have finished 

 them; and I want to state here, that it is not always the cattle 

 that top the market that make the feeder the most money. I can 

 handle a calf and feed a calf eight or ten or twelve months, but I 

 don't want to feed a grown steer more than from three to five 

 months, if I want to realize a greater profit. 



The question of feeding after we have obtained this steer is 

 one that we should carefully consider. Now, I am not going to 

 talk to you about protein, carbo-hydrates and balanced rations; 

 I don't know much about those things myself, and I leave that for 

 those that do. But I am going to talk to you about corn and the 

 various forms in which we put that corn to feed it. 



Of course, in the great corn belt of Iowa and Illinois, the 

 feeder is extravagant in the use of corn and always will be. I 

 want you to remember that I am speaking from the standpoint of a 

 feeder, and not from a breeder's standpoint, and when I am talk- 

 ing about plain and common cattle, I am often accused of advocating 

 the handling and growing of these cattle. But I am not; you will 

 undestand I am not. But these cattle are with us and they are 

 going to stay with us ; they will be with us a good while yet. They 

 must be converted into beef, if they are put on the market; they 

 are put on the market, and that is the end of all of them. 



Now, considering feed cattle, I think shocked com is one of 

 the best foods that can be given a steer. I think it is the best 

 single feed for it, throughout the feeding period, from start to 

 finish. As a rule, I do not believe it pays to grind corn for the 

 cattle. I would say to feeders who have plenty of hogs follow- 

 ing the cattle, as most feeders have, I would put the least expense 

 possible on a bushel of corn delivered to the steer. Yet I grind 

 about 75 per cent of all the corn I feed, and for this reason 

 (I have a farm of 100 acres) I buy all my cattle and practically 

 all my corn. This 100 acres of land is mostly in grass; I grow a 

 little corn and feed out of the shock; and the system that is 

 practicable to me and profitable to me, it might not be profitable 

 and practicable to somebody else. Roughness is very high and has 

 been for a number of years, in Central Illinois, and is probably 

 here. I find that I can convert my ear corn into ground corn, cob 

 and all. I think that 100 pounds of ground corn with the cob for 

 the first 60 or 90 days, is worth as much as 100 pounds of clear, 

 shelled corn for feeding cattle ; for that reason I am using ground 

 corn principally. With ground com and cob cattle need very little 

 if any other roughness ; they will do well without any other rough- 



