CHAPTER VIII 



THE "baby" beef IDEA 



FOR many years the agricultural press has at 

 times, in a casual way, credited me with being 

 a pioneer in pushing range-bred calves to be matured 

 as finished beeves in the corn belt at an age not ex- 

 ceeding twenty months. While I have devoted twenty 

 years of my life to that work, the idea was in the 

 main obtained from T. F. B. Sotham long before I 

 had any thought of becoming identified with range 

 work, and while many feeders undoubtedly were try- 

 ing it in a small way, even before Mr. Sotham took it 

 up, he was the first to get behind it in any definite 

 way. While it was sure eventually to come, his initial 

 work brought its first impetus, introducing it as a 

 distinct phase of the feeding industry years before its 

 natural evolution could have been brought about. 



When I began my work with the Armour herd 

 "Tom" Sotham was a "live wire" in extending the 

 use of registered Hereford bulls into the range. He 

 made many visits to range herds, came in contact 

 with the big and little men of the range, recognized 

 the rapid improvement that had been made, initiated 

 some experiments as to the outcome and became con- 

 vinced that the market for registered bulls would 



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