CHAPTER VII. 

 SELECTION OF FEEDER STEERS. 



Beef producers may be divided into two groups (1) men 

 who grow beef, and (2) cattle feeders. In the first group are 

 those who maintain breeding herds for the production of steers 

 for the market. This group includes the western cattle man on 

 the range and also the farmer who keeps a small herd of beef 

 cows. The beef grower has a year-round job. Furthermore, 

 he usually follows the business steadily for a period of years. 

 The very nature of the business demands that it be established 

 on a permanent basis. It cannot be followed one year, given 

 up the next year, and begun again the next, with any fair expec- 

 tation of profits. The second group includes those who follow 

 the practice of buying thin cattle to be fattened. This is simply 

 a finishing process, and is more speculative in character than 

 that of growing beef. It may be followed intermittently, although 

 most successful feeders are in the business regularly each year. 

 Furthermore, in the cornbelt states, where grain feeding is prac- 

 ticed, it is usually limited to a few months of the year and usually 

 to those months when other farm work is slack. 



In an investigation of methods of marketing live stock and 

 meats, made by the U. S. Department of Agriculture* in 1915, 

 reports were received from 2072 special live-stock and price 

 reporters of the Bureau of Crop Estimates which indicated that 

 74 per cent, of stockers and feeders are bought in the fall, 19 

 per cent, in the spring, 3 per cent, in the summer, and 4 per 

 cent, in the winter. It was also indicated that 55 per cent, of 

 stocker and feeder cattle purchased are bought in the district 

 in which they are fed or grazed, 27 per cent, at the centralized 

 markets, and 18 per cent, in the country, other than locally. 



As shown in the preceding chapter, the cornbelt beef grower 

 finds baby beef production profitable. On his high-priced land 

 he cannot afford to raise steers to two years old or older and 

 then fatten them. The cornbelt cattle feeder, however, is not 

 bound by the same rules. He usually buys western steers 

 raised on cheaper lands, and so long as thin two- and three-year - 



*U. S. Dept. Agr. Report 113, p. 17. 



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