There's teh In km 



Says Edgar Thompson, Cass County Cattle Feeder Whose 

 Bluegrass Has Made Beef for 38 Sunimers 



BEEF MAKER 

 Motariala, gross and com. 



'RASS, for the first time since 

 before the World War is an 

 important corn belt crop. Acre- 

 age reduction and soil conservation 

 programs brought it back and now 

 farmers are wondering what to do 

 with it. 



Edgar Thompson has a solution for 

 the problem based on 38 years of cattle 

 feeding. Thompson's 218-acre rolling 

 Cass county farm has 160 acres of crop 

 land. It produces grass and corn, the 

 major raw material for beef. Steers 

 are the converting units. Thompson's 

 marketing is usually handled by the 

 Producers Commission Association at 

 East St. Louis. 



Raised by a cattle-feeding father, 

 Edgar has fed livestock since he was 

 big enough to hoist a scoop of corn 

 over a wagon box. At 23, he took 

 two important steps, either one impor- 

 tant enough to change the course of 

 his life. First, he married and started 

 farming. Second he bought a bunch 

 of feeding cattle. 



"That bunch lost me plenty of 

 money, " Edgar recalls without diffi- 

 culty. "I paid too much for them 

 and the market went down. They 

 gained enough, though, that I could 

 have got out. But I wanted to do 

 better than break even and the longer 

 I held them the lower the price went. " 



Bred in the cattle feeding game, 

 Edgar took his loss like a veteran. 



Next year he was back in again and 

 he's been in every year since. 



Thompson feeds Herefords. The 

 average run of Shorthorns, he says, 

 don't hold together as they grow. 

 Most of his feeders in recent years 

 have come from Kansas City but he 

 occasionally picks off a load now and 

 then in Missouri. 



He buys a common to good grade of 

 steers that weigh in the neighborhood 

 of 750 pounds when they arrive at the 

 farm early in January. They get a 

 feed of clover hay at once and a taste 

 of corn and are put on bluegrass 

 pasture the same day. Corn feeding is 

 increased until they are on full feed 

 by the middle of March. They are 

 kept on that ration, balanced with 

 soybean oil meal or cottonseed oil 

 meal until they are sold, usually in 

 July or August. 



Under this system of handling the 

 cattle get accustomed to grass as it 

 greens up in the spring. Sometimes 

 a warm spring makes the grass grow 

 loo fast and the cattle have a tendency 

 to scour. This occurs so rarely that 

 Edgar worries little about it. 



"Clover is best fed as hay. Never 

 pasture it with cattle on full feeds," 

 Thompson says. "Cattle fill up on clo- 

 ver pasture and leave the corn alone. 

 This doesn't happen with bluegrass. ' 



"Dry lot steers bring more per pound 

 but grass gives you cheaper gains. 

 Some feeders try to give their cattle 

 a grain finish by taking them off grass 

 a month or so before they market them. 

 I don't feel that this practice increases 

 the value enough to pay for the extra 

 feed." 



Flies are always a problem in summer 

 feeding. Thompson licked that one in 

 1918 when he built a feeding plant 40 

 bv 80 feet. It has two dark alleys 

 running the full length of the building 

 which offer cattle a fly-free haven. 

 These alleys are divided by a giant 

 self-feeder holding 5500 bushels of 

 shelled corn. The hopper is filled 



FEEDING PLANT 

 A giant seli-leeder. ■ 



though special vents in the roof by 

 means of a portable elevator. The 

 southeast side of the shed is ofjen. A 

 hay feeder separates the open side and 

 the alley. Cost of the plant was $2150. 



Thompson has handled as many as 

 80 head on pasture. Since he moved 

 to town a few years ago, he reduced 

 his operations to around 44 head. He 

 buys a load or two in September to 

 clean up stalkfields. They are brought 

 in along in January for dry lot feeding. 



Marketing often makes the difference 



THOMPSON HOMESTEAD 

 Grass helped build it 



EDGAR THOMPSON 

 "Do it every year." 



between profit and loss. This branch 

 of feeding requires thorough study. 

 Thompson believes in taking his profit 

 at the first opportunity, a lesson he 

 learned with his first bunch of feeders 

 38 years ago. When he has a carload 

 of choice, finished steers he sends them 

 to the Chicago Producers where the 

 demand for this class of beef, he feels, 

 is a little better. 



Edgar has a word of advice for 

 farmers who have never fed cattle. 

 He says: 



"Take a small bite first. If you 

 don't like the work connected with 

 feeding don't continue. No one has 

 ever made a success of something he 

 doesn't like to do. If you like feeding 

 follow it every year. Ask your nearest 

 Producers commission agency for ad- 

 vice about buying feeders and always 

 sell your finished cattle through them. 

 They are in a position to get the best 

 price for you." — Larry Potter. 



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