554 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the unanimity with which these men agree that the so-called 

 dressed beef steer, or the two-year-old, weighing from 1,300 to 1,400 

 pounds is in the most active demand and sells at a better price one day 

 with another, year after year, than any other age or weight of similar 

 quality and of equal finish. It is furthermore significant that the feeder 

 has said with striking unanimity that the two-year-old steer weighing be- 

 tween 1,300 and 1,400 pounds has returned him the greatest profit. 



If the raiser and feeder of cattle were the same man, it would be but 

 a short time until the cattle would be going to market at from fourteen 

 to eighteen months of age, instead of from thirty to thirty-six months 

 of age, under the conditions now prevailing in the corn belt. Already 

 there has been a marked tendency on the part of the farmer of the high 

 priced land in the corn belt to go out of the business of raising beef cat- 

 tle. This has been practically true under the influence of the high 

 prices of corn that have prevailed in recent years, and a steady advance 

 in the price of land and labor. This. is very strikingly true of the best 

 corn regions of Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa, and has forced the feeder 

 to rely more and more upon western or range cattle, which in the mean- 

 time have been greatly improved in quality, so that a two-year-old range 

 steer now is as large and almost as mature in form as was the three or 

 four-year-old steer of twenty years ago from the same region. 



The season of the year exercises a profound influence upon the economy 

 with which steers may be made fat. Few feeders express a preference for 

 winter feeding. More than half the feeders express an unqualified 

 preference for summer feeding; thirteen per cent prefer spring and sum- 

 mer; eight per cent prefer summer and fall; eleven per cent prefer fall. 

 Thus practically ninety per cent express a preference for feeding other 

 than winter, which, broadly speaking, means a preference for sum- 

 mer feeding. The advantages of summer over winter feeding are sum- 

 marized by Dr. Waters thus: 



1. Gains made in summer require less grain. 



2. The gains are made more rapidly, so that the animal is finished 

 in less time. 



3 Steers may be made thick and prime on corn and grass in summer, 

 without the use of expensive supplementary feeds like cotton-seed meal 

 or linseed meal, and will carry to market a lustrous coat. It is impos- 

 sible by the use of corn and such roughage as timothy or prairie hay to 

 bring animals within a reasonable time to anything like the degree of fat- 

 ness that may be easily made with corn and grass, and they will never 

 carry the blood that is put on by full feeding of pasture. Presumably 

 the green grass contains suflScient protein to give the high finish and 

 excellent coat required of animals that bring a high price. To approxi- 

 mate this finish in winter feeding requires the use of a considerable 

 quantity of expensive grain like cotton-seed meal or linseed meal, or the 

 use of clover, cowpea or alfalfa hay or roughage. 



4. More Profltahle in Summer. — The hog makes larger gains and shows 

 a much lower death rate in summer than in winter feeding. 



5. There is a considerable saving in labor in summer feeding over 

 winter feeding in view of the fact that only the grain has to be hauled 

 and in view of the further fact that as a rule the steers need to be fed 



