64 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



it surely is on high priced land. This leads up to the question of milk- 

 ing cows, something which the average man does not take kindly to, 

 but a question which sooner or later he will be obliged to solve. In 

 England this question has been solved. Over there the first requisite 

 of a beef cow is that she be a fair milker. A cow that will not give a 

 liberal flow of milk is condemned. At the Iowa Experiment Station we 

 have cows of more than one of the recognized beef breeds which, in 

 addition to possessing the desired beef form, have produced from three 

 to four hundred pounds of butter per year. We have also found that 

 when the milk is separated while warm and fed directly to the calves 

 that, by addition of some flax seed meal, oat meal, or corn meal to the 

 skim milk, practically as good calves can be reared as when whole milk 

 has been fed. The butter fat, when separated from the milk, netted us 

 from fifty to eighty dollars per cow. Calves from these cows, fed on 

 skim milk and the adjuncts mentioned, have been marketed at twenty- 

 six months of age when they weighed over fourteen hundred pounds. 



When land reaches the one hundred dollar mark it requires careful 

 farming and stockraising to return a paying profit on the investment. 

 But the Iowa farmer must not abandon stock raising, else his land will 

 surely deteriorate in value. In many of the eastern states when land 

 advanced in value the owners considered it too valuable for stock rais- 

 ing, thus in many instances they went out of the business. What has 

 been the result? There is but one outcome to any such practice, which 

 Is wornout farms, which, in many instances, have been deserted. They 

 have been taught a valuable lesson, one which the farmer of the Cen- 

 tral West should not have to learn through experience. Successful farm- 

 ing cannot be carried on continuously without live stock. Commercial 

 fertilizers may apparently answer the purpose for a short time, but soil 

 fertility can only be maintained in one way and that is by stock farm- 

 ing. In England stock farming is the mainstay of the farmer and land 

 is worth twice as much as it is here. In the island of Jersey 

 land rents around twenty dollars per acre, still live stock, especially 

 dairy farming, is their main occupation. If Iowa farm: lands are to 

 maintain their present values, and they surely will, it will be because 

 the farmers will adhere to the live stock business. In this respect no 

 line of live stock is better adapted to our conditions than beef cattle 

 when produced from dual purpose cows. The cow that will net her owner 

 forty dollars or upwards for the butter fat sold and at the same time 

 produce a calf which can be marketed at the age of two and a half years 

 weighing in the neighborhood of fifteen hundred pounds. Such a method 

 is practicable and when adopted by the Iowa farmer he will not con- 

 sider land too valuable even at one hundred and fifty dollars per acre 

 for the economical production of beef. 



We have at the present time a great many men who are cattle feed- 

 ers. This method has some advantages and many disadvantages. There 

 seems to be a great many uncertainties about this kind of work. The 

 cattle feeder mjust. first of all, buy his cattle right else he cannot hope 

 to realize a profit. It is very difficult to get animals of good quality. 



