142 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



described the feeding of the champion steer, what is the average 

 feeder in this room to learn from that contest? 



Professor Curtiss : One thing is the kind of cattle that it takes 

 to reach that degree of early maturity that will enable them to bring 

 high prices in short feeding periods. 



Mr. Wallace : I am referring to the individual championship. 



Professor Curtiss : That is true of the individual and collect- 

 ively : the type of cattle that we find each year in the grand cham- 

 pionship, that will take on that quality and that finish which com- 

 mands a high selling price and which gives a high-priced product 

 on the block. We all know that there would not be, perhaps, a vast 

 amount of difference between a grand champion steer carcass 

 when it goes on the block and one that was ranked a little below 

 him. Sometimes the grand champion steers are fed to a point be- 

 yond the highest utility of the carcass. But, after all, there is that 

 lesson of early maturity and quality which we must develop in our 

 cattle, and without that such a load as the short-fed specials could 

 never have been made. The old style of feeding, by putting cattle 

 into the feed lot and shoveling corn to them for a year, or a good 

 part of it, has passed away, and the men that have made the most 

 money in feeding cattle in recent years are those that have made 

 the best cattle with the shortest feeding period; and that is the 

 lesson we learn from the tests of the International, both in the 

 individual and the carload classes. 



Mr. Wallace: I felt justified in asking that question because in 

 our papers we have been urging everybody to go to the Interna- 

 tional. We have been holding that out as the great gathering place 

 where people could learn about the best livestock and the best 

 methods of feeding, especially. 



Now the professor has told us about feeding this champion 

 steer, from which it appears that he had the milk from two nurse 

 cows, and that his grain ration consisted during the last two 

 months — I think longer than that, according to the statement sent 

 out by Professor Kennedy — of boiled wheat and oats. The ques- 

 tion arises, just what educational benefit is there to the average 

 farmer and feeder who goes to see that steer? As the professor 

 said, the method used in feeding him is not the practical method 

 for you to use in your feed lots. It would appear from this state- 

 ment that to make a champion steer you must first have the money 

 to travel around and locate a steer that has in him the making of 

 a champion; second, you must be a good enough judge to know 



