CATTLE 



1237 



CATTLE 



Milk should always be fed at a temperature 

 of 90 to 100. 



The greatest trouble in feeding calves comes 

 from cold milk, dirty pails and cold, dirty pens. 

 No one should ever feed a calf out of a pail 

 he would not be willing to drink out of him- 

 self. As soon as the calf will eat good clover 

 hay, it should receive all it will eat. A good 

 grain mixture is the one indicated above for 

 bulls and young stock. The main thing of 

 importance in caring for young animals at all 

 times is to keep them growing well. 



The Beef Type. The beef type is charac- 

 terized by a form of body of the shape of a 

 parallelogram when viewed from the side. The 

 animal is closely knit, with a small, fine bone, 

 heavily and evenly fleshed all over, in direct 

 contrast to the openness of frame and angular 

 characteristics of the dairy type. 



The best-known beef breeds are the Short- 

 horn, the Hereford, the Aberdeen-Angus and 

 the Galloway. The Shorthorn breed, formerly 

 called Durham, originated in Northeast Eng- 

 land, in the counties of Durham and York, and 

 has attained great prominence as a beef breed. 

 The Herefords originated in County Hereford, 

 in Southwest England, but have not been as 

 uniform in their development, lacking, as a 

 breed, in the hindquarters. The Aberdeen- 

 Angus and Galloway breeds have not attained 

 so great prominence as the other breeds, but 

 are both good for beef production. 



Shorthorn cattle are red, red and white, pure 

 white, or a mingling of red and white called 

 roan. Hereford cattle are red, with a white 

 face, white legs below the knees, white breast, 

 white brush, white on the top of the neck and 

 white along the bottom of the abdomen. 

 Aberdeen-Angus and the Galloway cattle are 

 black and are polled. Galloway cattle have 

 longer hair than the other breeds, and their 

 hides when tanned with the hair on make the 

 best* overcoats and robes. 



Feeding Beef Cattle. In growing and feeding 

 beef cattle, two systems are in general prac- 

 tice: (1) Through the grain-growing regions, 

 the cattle are bred and fattened on the same 

 farm; (2) the cattle are bred and grown for 

 a year or two on the range and then shipped 

 into the grain-growing country to be fattened 

 and finished for market. In the first of these 

 systems, the animals to-day are grown on 

 mother's milk and the best of corn, just as 

 rapidly as possible. When they are marketed 

 at six to eight months of age by this method 

 they are called baby beeves; they are sold at 



a live weight of 450 to 500 pounds and bring 

 the highest prices on the market. Good alfalfa 

 or clover hay, with plenty of corn and some 

 oil meal after the calves have been weaned, is 

 the typical ration in producing this kind of 

 meat. On farms where baby beef raising is 

 not practiced, the cattle are kept growing well 

 with good hay (clover hay, mostly), corn and 

 a little of some concentrate such as cotton- 

 seed meal, gluten food, or oil meal, to provide 

 more protein than is found in a strictly corn 

 nd hay ration. 



In modern farm beef raising the cattle are 

 turned to market at a weight of from 1,000 

 to 1,200 pounds at about two years of age. 

 Formerly beeves were kept on roughage with 

 very little grain until three years old, when 

 they were fattened and turned to market at 

 about 2,000 pounds live weight. It is now con- 

 sidered more economical to keep the animals 

 growing and market not later than at two years 

 of age. For example, a popular method, as- 

 suming that the calves are born in the spring, 

 gives them milk and pasture the first summer, 

 a light grain ration the first winter, pasture the 

 second summer, a light grain ration the sec- 

 ond winter; then they are put on a heavy 

 grain ration with pasture the third summer. 

 This finishes them for the fall market, and this 

 method utilizes pastures and roughage to the 

 greatest advantage; the method is modified to 

 fit the conditions on the individual farm and 

 to fit the market, and the animal reaches the 

 market when a few months over two years old. 



The beef-breeding cows reach about the same 

 age as the dairy cows. The cow is considered 

 to have passed a useful life if she has pro- 

 duced five calves. The cows are kept as long 

 as they will breed regularly, and are then sold 

 for what they will bring. 



The Great Cattle Ranges. There is a part of 

 the country through the western part of North 

 and South America adjoining and including 

 the mountain ranges which is low priced and 

 generally unfit for farm purposes. This is 

 partly due to the nature of the country, but 

 mostly to the lack of rainfall. However, these 

 lands produce nutritious grasses, which are 

 available to animals that can travel over rela- 

 tively-long distances for water and sparse vege- 

 tation. This range country lent itself to the 

 breeding and rearing of cattle and thus devel- 

 oped the great cattle ranches. Here the yearly 

 cost of feeding a steer is small, so animals are 

 usually kept until two or three years old and 

 then shipped to be finished on farms. The 



