PROGRESSIVE BEEF CATTLE RAISING 



cattle over will be more than the rise in price he will 

 probably get. Few are competent to advise with him 

 except the men of his locality who are familiar with con- 

 ditions. Possibly the county agricultural agent can be 

 of service in this connection. 



The two simplest ways of taking 

 Methods of advantage of the better markets in 



Reaching the the seasons of lean supply are, first, 

 Most Favorable to buy half finished cattle that some 

 Markets other shipper has put on the market 



and feed them for thirty to sixty days, 

 depending on condition, and, second, to handle the animals 

 by cheap maintenance and suitable farm equipment to 

 carry over into this favorable time. The first system is 

 best adapted to feeders who live close to a big livestock 

 market. At almost any time during the winter the 

 careful buyer can go on the market and watch for steers 

 selling at prices he can afford to consider for further 

 feeding. On the stockyards markets he will have to 

 compete for warmed-up cattle with packer and speculator 

 buyers to a greater extent than for the customary type 

 of feeders, but he will find certain days in every week 

 (not always the same day by any means), when there are 

 more of this type on the market than can be absorbed and 

 he can buy at suitable prices. He may find it to his ad- 

 vantage to do this twice in a winter rather than once, in 

 order to get the most economical use of his feed. He will 

 need dry bottomed feedlots, and protection from the 

 north and west in the more severe sections of the country, 

 and he cannot profitably depend on the steers doing much 

 rustling of their own, but must have facilities for bringing 

 the steers' feed to them. The other system depends on 

 finishing the steers on grass while it is still lush and 

 requires silage and in some sections, soiling crops (peas, 

 oats, vetch, cane, rye, etc.) as supplements. It adapts 

 itself to baby beef production as calves of one spring can 



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