BEEF CATTLE 59 



fear that unfavorable public opinion might at any time crystallize into 

 the form of laws of such restrictive nature as to obliterate profits. 



Reliable data in regard to methods of meat production are insufficient 

 to enable us to recommend practices which can be substantiated by records 

 of unquestioned reliability. There is, however, so great an abundance 

 of information as to methods of fattening that it is possible for one familiar 

 with the publications and the general farm practices to recommend rations 

 which are certain to produce rapid and economical gains in the feed lot 

 with acceptable dressing percentages. 



Tenant Farming Unfavorable to Beef Production. The rapid growth 

 of tenant farming has eliminated the production of meat from thousands 

 of acres of land which should never have been plowed, and will probably 

 continue to exert a depressing influence upon the business until the value 

 of farm lands is based upon production rather than upon speculation. 

 Under the present system of renting, it is almost impossible to handle 

 beef cattle profitably on a tenant farm. The cattle business requires a 

 number of years to develop and a system of farming that will produce 

 the feeds necessary to maintain a herd of cattle during the winter. A 

 further reason is that the chief profit in cattle farming is the increase in 

 the fertility of the soil and the yield of crops which comes from using the 

 manure on the land. Where land is rented annually there is no incentive 

 to build it up and increase crop production when a different renter may 

 farm it the next year. A system of longer leases must result which will 

 give the tenant an incentive to increase rather than exhaust the fertility 

 of the soil. 



Breeding Cattle Requires Capital. If means of financing breeding 

 operations were provided, the supply of breeding animals on both farms 

 and ranges would be increased tremendously. It is possible for a farmer 

 who has produced a crop of corn or has pasture, to go to almost any bank 

 and secure funds with which to purchase steers to consume these products. 

 Money is loaned for ninety to one hundred and eighty days with the 

 privilege of renewal. It is impossible, however, for him to borrow the 

 same money with breeding females as security, because three to five years 

 must elapse before the increase will be marketable. This is probably 

 the greatest problem to be solved if breeding operations are to be materially 

 increased in the near future. 



Breeding herds should be established in the South, the East and in 

 the cut-over districts near the Great Lakes on the land that is adapted 

 to the production of pasture grasses. More attention should be given 

 to pastures to increase their carrying capacity by fertilizing them with 

 manure or fertilizers, by thickening the stand of grass by natural or artificial 

 means and by using silage during unfavorable periods. While grass is 

 the most important crop produced in the United States, more land being 

 devoted to its production than to all others except trees, there is not an 

 important investigational project on the subject reported which the meat 



