No. 4.] BEEF PRODUCTION IN NEW ENGLAND. 73 



The heavy pereentage of the ration required for mainte- 

 nance makes it imperative that there shall be continuous 

 growth from start to finish. All fat and lean periods must 

 be resolutely eliminated. The fattening period properly 

 begins when the calf is born, if not before. This demands 

 barn feeding until full pasture feed and during early fall 

 months. The year the steer is finished for market ffrain 

 should be fed at pasture, and must be fed each year until 

 ideal pastures arc secured if baby beef is to be made. I have 

 seen in Missouri corn constantly before steers in pastures 

 where the Kentucky blue giuss was " up to the eyes," — as 

 high as 500 pounds growth being made in the grazing 

 season. Such feeding ultimatcs in good pastures. The 

 advice to grain feed steers at pasture will appear radical ; 

 but the solid beef, well marbled, that now brings 8^/2 cents 

 a pound in Chicago, 1,000 miles west, while ours sells for 

 1 to 3 cents less in the final market here, is a type of beef 

 to be had only by such feeding, and will pay us to produce. 



Those feeling that our pastures are too valuable to throw 

 away, and that it is too costly a process to make them pro- 

 ductive, must bear in mind that the grass is shaded by weeds 

 and bushes, is of low feeding value and that it is hard work 

 at grazing for even a moderate growth of steers. jNIaturity 

 of steers fed on them is put over a year, and carries with the 

 delay the necessity of feeding maintenance food for this 

 time, and, furthermore, the quality of the beef is lowered. 

 Those losses are more than the cost of fertilizing the pas- 

 tures. The fertilized pastures themselves carry enough 

 more stock and produce a quality of beef enough better to 

 compensate for the cost of improvements, 



I am not friendly to heavy grain feeding but to continuous 

 grain feeding from birth to slaughter. A fattening period, 

 a stufling period with fattening foods, means fat put on in 

 layers between the muscles and on the ribs and exterior 

 parts of the body in a bunchy way. A soft oleaginous 

 touch is the result, plus an increased ratio of flit for waste. 

 Where the steer is growing muscle and fat proportionately 

 the fat is laid in among the fibres of the muscles, and the 

 carcass where cut shows a marbled condition. To the touch 

 the flesh is solid yet elastic^in the live animal. When fed for 



