EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III. 105 



weight of his cattle, and the available feed, and his bank account. 

 I think he should decide then when these cattle should be mar- 

 keted and feed them accordingly, and market them when the time 

 has expired. I invariably, when I put my cattle on feed, name 

 the date, within a week. I will say, I move these cattle in May, 

 or the middle of June, or first of July, and they go then. I 

 don't wait until the cattle are ready to go, and then, as too 

 many feeders do, write their commission firm and tell them they 

 have some cattle now ready to market, and ask them when to 

 be there with them, and read the daily quotations every day. and 

 when you strike a high time, you go there — and you will find a 

 great many fellows who have reasoned the same way you have, and 

 they are there too. You must remember, good markets are shared 

 by few, and the mean markets by many. It is a very expensive 

 operation, to hold a bunch of fat cattle, waiting for a market; 

 30 to 60 days soon slip around, and we are producing beef pretty 

 high, and the chances are we get on a market no better than it 

 was 30 to 60 days earlier. I think if you would select a dozen 

 feeders in this audience today, and let them feed cattle the next 

 five years, and let half of them name their shipping day ahead, 

 whether 3, 6 or 10 months, or a year, with every bunch of cattle 

 they feed, and move those cattle on that day, they will strike 

 as good average markets as will the other six men who have 

 finished their cattle and then try to hit the high tide. I believe 

 the ones who name the date and stick to it, will strike as good 

 an average market as the man who watches the market in order to 

 get the best of it. 



In regard to dehorning cattle, I think the results obtained 

 following the taking off of the horns, justifies taking them off. 

 That it costs feeders more to dehorn two-year old steers than at 

 the earlier date, most of us are ready to admit. I don't think 

 we can dehorn good strong two-year old cattle for less than $1.50 

 to $2.00 a head. Sometimes we dehorn cattle and it does not seem 

 to affect them very much, and again we dehorn them under just 

 as favorable conditions and it nearly kills them, and we sometimes 

 lose a steer. I think the results obtained, however, justifies taking 

 off the horns. 



Now, if this subject is going to be of profit to us here, I 

 think it will be from the exchange of ideas and views on this 

 question. I have hurriedly gone over it, and possibly haven't 

 touched some phases of it you might like some information about. 



