WALTER HOWE AND FRED MOORE 

 "Make 'am heavy and take your profit." 



Warren County Tour 

 Uncovers Some Interest- 

 ing Experiences in Pro- 

 ducing Beef 



t ^4 —HEN drouth and grasshopjjers 

 V».Yiy reduced Warren county's corn 

 g yields 60 per cent last fall, 

 cattle feeders of the county found them- 

 selves in a hole. Paradoxically enough, 

 many of them succeeded in getting out 

 of that hole by digging another. 



To make the best of a bad feed 

 shortage in a year of good prices and 

 favorable feeding margins required much 

 careful thought and planning. Warren 

 county's feeders foresaw a chance for 

 profit from finished cattle during the 

 twelve months then just ahead. More 

 than that, they knew that it takes corn 

 to make quality fat steers and they 

 didn't have it! 



The information they had concerning 



ADVISER WALWORTH'S HELPER 

 "She told feeders how to get there." 



Timely Tips 

 Cattle Feeders 



"behind the eight ball" so far as having 

 feed for their cattle was concerned, was 

 Glen Davis, operator of the first farm 

 visited on the tour. Glen had taken on 

 55 head of 345 pound calves last June. 

 As the corn harvest grew nearer the crop 

 prospects grew poorer and Glen was hard 

 pressed to find some means of saving all 

 the feed value of the crop in order to 

 winter his cattle. 



How to make beef from nubbiny, 'hop- 

 per stripped corn was Glen's problem. 

 Adviser Walworth told him to make a 

 trench silo. Glen shook his head. His 

 farm is level and what would prevent 

 the trench from filling with rain water.' 



Glen took his problem to the annual 

 cattle feeders day at the University. 



DURHAM LUCAS 

 He's chairman of the Warren county live- 

 stock marketing committee. 



the cattle market was correct, and, ac- 

 cording to Walter Howe, cattle salesman 

 for the Chicago Producers Commission 

 Association, the six months just ahead 

 are expected to offer good markets for 

 all cattle, especially the better grades of 

 heavies. This prediction was made on 

 the strength of information received from 

 thousands of beef producers in all parts 

 of the corn belt by the National Live- 

 stock Marketing Association. How to 

 take advantage of the strong market 

 without spending a barrel of money for 

 corn they couldn't raise was, and still 

 is, the problem of Warren county's cattle 

 feeders. 



In order to demonstrate methods that 

 make beef in spite of fe^d shortage, 

 Warren county's aggressive farm adviser, 

 E. H. Walworth, arranged a;^ounty feed 

 lot tour a short time ago. During the 

 trip five farms were visited where cattle 

 are being fed out, mostly on feeds grown 

 on the farms last season. 



On hand to answer marketing and 

 feeding questions were, L. D. Hall, field- 

 man for Illinois Livestock Marketing 

 Association, Walter Howe, Chicago Pro- 

 ducers Commission Association, and E. 

 T. Robbins, livestock specialist, Univer- 

 sity of Illinois. 



Among those who, last fall, stood 



- -/ '- 



AT THE END OF THE TOUR — 

 "Warren county feeders found a man who 

 raises his own." 



Animal husbandry professors cited ex- 

 periences other farmers had had with 

 pit silos on flat land and urged him to 

 dig one. 



Still unconvinced, Davis returned to 

 his farm, acted against his own judg- 

 ment, dug a trench 120 feet long, 13 

 feet wide and six and one-half feet deep. 

 Into this hole, located near a well be- 

 tween two corn fields. Glen blew and 

 packed all the silage from 52 acres of 

 hopper damaged corn. He covered the 

 mass with six inches of earth and waited 

 until his calves would need the feed. 



His cattle were given a full feed of 



JUNE. 1937 



27 



