lo Aug., J909.] Markct'nig 0)1 tiic H ooj . 529 



MARKETING ON TITE HOOF.* 



PROBLEM OF THE OAT CROP. 

 /. L. Doic, Agricultural l-.ditor of '' Tlic Leader.'' 



An interesting problem is the Victorian oat crop, the total annual yield 

 of which during recent vears has varied from 5.000,000 to 13,000,000 

 bushels. La.st harvests vield was 11,000,000 bushels, and the quantity 

 that the ordinary market can absorb averages about 7,000,000 bushels. 

 When the yield exceeds this quantity there is a glut, and the result is low 

 prices. This year, the prices of good feeding oats are quoted at from is. 

 8d. to IS. lod. per bu.shel ; which after, deducting threshing, bagging, cart- 

 ing, and railway freight to market, means something like from is. 4d. to 

 IS. 6d. on the farm. The safety valve against local glut prices is an export 

 trade. For wheat, butter, mutton and lamb there is an export trade, but 

 there is no export of oats. That Ijeing so. the question is whether it 

 w^ould not l)e profitable to take advantage of the mutton and lamb export 

 trade in dealing with the oat crop surplus. 



Experiences in America. 



Some notes in this connexion were taken during one of the agricultural 

 tours through America the writer of this paper made under instructions of 

 the proprietors of The Leader. Fort Collins, in Colorado, one of the mid- 

 wcsterii States, is an irrigation district which produces large quantities 

 of maize and lucerne ha\ . The Fort Collins business of lamb fattening is 

 so profitable that it is largely extending every year. This industrv was 

 started several years ago by a farmer who had bought 1,500 head of lambs 

 on the ^^'yoming range for the purpose of shipping them to the eastern 

 market, when a blizzard caused him to unload at Fort Collins and put his 

 lambs on feed. They thrived so well and so cheaplv on maize and lucerne 

 hay that his neighbours began following his example, and so the business 

 has grown. The farmers in the Fort Collins district contract with the 

 raisers of store sheep on the Xew^ Mexico and Wyoming Ranges earlv in 

 the spring for their lambs, and fatten them for the eastern markets. At 

 Fort Collins, the Iambs are unloaded and driven to the feeding pens, which 

 are to be found now on practically every farm. The ewes and lambs for 

 the first three weeks at the start are given all the lucerne hay they will eat, 

 and then they are given the maize. The feeders use onlv maize and 

 lucerne, the proteid of the corn combining with the carbo-hydrate of the 

 lucerne to form a well balanced ration. The maize feeding is commenced 

 with \ lb. per head daily, which is increased gradually until they are getting 

 I lb. each at the end of the month. The average increase in the weight of 

 lambs is 10 lb. per head per month. The grain is fed in low troughs in 

 a separate enclosure, which is close to the maize bin. Lucerne is kept 

 in small racks in the pens where the sheep may get at it day or night, 

 and they have access at will to a ])lentiful supply of good fresh water. 

 Last year, the Fort Collins Lambs returned in some instances as high as 

 8s. profit on the feeding. Few farmers feed less than 500 sheep or lambs, 

 which, after fattening, are put on the cars and .sent on to the Chicago, 

 Kansas, and other markets to the eastward. The Fort Collins farmers now 

 fatten 1.000,000 sheep and lambs each vear. 



* Paper read at the Seventh Convention of tlie Victorian Chamber of Agritulture, held at Beudiso 

 -July, 1909. 



