636 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



BUYING STEERS FOR THE FEED LOT. 



A. L. Ames, before the Black Hawk County Farmers' Institute. 



The best method of buying steers for the feed lot is a problem never 

 solved, and is always new and of vital interest to the feeder. The old 

 adage, "An article well bought is half sold," was never better illustrated. 

 "When? How? Where? What kind? What weight and what price? 

 are questions that should be thoroughly settled in the mind of the pro- 

 spective buyer. I wish to call attention to a few necessary and important 

 points to be observed before attempting to secure the cattle. 



In this age of change and if you will progress, when the tendency of 

 every industrial department is toward combination and centralization, in 

 this land where labor rules and where unions are more powerful than law, 

 religion or right, where the successful man in every business department 

 devotes his whole energy and thinking being to the perfection of some 

 one idea and to prove to the world its value, the farmer, feeder and stock 

 man is expected to take his place. 



In order then to buy well a drove of cattle for the feed lot he must 

 know something more than cattle. There must be long, hard hours of 

 study over the industrial problems of the day. The reason why he feeds 

 being his desire to sell beef at a profit, it becomes necessary for him to 

 study the future prospect of the market. He must be well posted on the 

 number of cattle relative to other like periods that are going "on feed" 

 at the time he expects to start his. He must know to a certainty the power 

 or feeding value of the feed he is to use and its cost per hundredweight 

 when ready for the cattle. He must also be reasonably sure of the pounds 

 gain to be made during the feeding period by the used of this feed. He 

 will then know just exactly what he can take per hundredweight for his 

 cattle and not lose on the investment. He also has the advantage of know- 

 ing at all stages of the feeding period the actual cost of the cattle up to 

 date, and can take advantage of a profit should the proper inducement 

 present itself. To all of these questions and many others should the feeder 

 give his best thought and study before deciding to feed. 



It would be impossible in one article to speak of all the different meth- 

 ods or combination of circumstances that must inevitably arise and can 

 only be settled by one person and he the originator of the plan. I will 

 therefore confine myself to a few general principles that I have found 

 useful in buying all kinds of cattle but more particularly those to be used 

 for the "dry lot" or placed immediately on full feed. 



The first and most important point to be decided by the buyer is the 

 class of cattle to buy. This question should be settled at home before any 

 attempt is made to find or purchase any cattle whatever. Only those of 

 the same class, age, weight and breeding should be fed in the s?me yard. 

 A mixed drove of big and little, rough and smooth, well bred and scrubs, 

 do not feed so well nor sell as well as though they were all of the same kind 

 Having fully determined this point do not allow your judgment to be 

 overruled by what the other man is doing. A good axiom to follow is to 

 "Buy when the other man wants to sell." You can then get your money's 



