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for a commission, for freight, for yardage, or a trip to a central market to 

 buy them; there was nothing charged up against those cattle except the 

 maintenance of their dams and the feeds that had been used in growing and 

 preparing them for market. In the end one of the most important places 

 where we can look for a more economical production in the future is in 

 the elimination of expense before feeding starts. 



Too frequently we expect some man in Arizona or New Mexico to breed 

 a calf and to handle him until weaning time. He is then shipped to the 

 Panhandle of Texas, which is considered a growing country rather than a 

 fattening country, where he remains from calfhood until he is ready to 

 fatten on grass. When he is a two-year-old or three-year-old he is shipped 

 to Kansas or Oklahoma when he goes on our long-grass pastures and there 

 matures as a grass-fat steer, matures into such condition that the Corn Belt 

 feeder will buy him for the purpose of finishing him for the Chicago market. 

 He goes from the long-grass pastures into the feed lots and from there to 

 the market. Frequently there will be three to four freight bills, one to two 

 commission charges, and the shrink which accompanies the movement of an 

 animal from one section of the Country to another charged up against the 

 fat steer before he goes to the market. There is not ten percent of all of 

 the beef cattle marketed in all of the markets of the United States which 

 go directly from the farms or the ranges on which they are produced to the 

 market for slaughter. The other ninety percent have changed ownership 

 and have changed location, frequently a very radical change both in owner- 

 ship and location from one to three times before they finally go to market 

 as finished or fattened animals. 



The beef cattle industry has not been in such condition during the past 

 year or two that it could afford or could stand three or four profits and leave 

 any profit to the man who finally shipped that animal to market. That is 

 one of the greatest problems which the cattle men of this section of the 

 country, and the cattle men of the west have to confront, the movement 

 of our cattle from the place of origin to the final place where they are 

 finished for market with a minimum expense. 



HOGS ABE NECESSABY ADJUNCT. 



Any man who expects to make a business of cattle feeding considers 

 the hog in connection with it. We usually expect, when we are full-feeding 

 steers, to get about two pounds of pork from a bushel of corn fed to the 

 cattle. Occasionally we find men who attempt to feed cattle without hogs. 

 Very frequently we find men who feed their cattle in such manner that the 

 hogs can get but very little of the by-products from the feed lots. The most 

 economical feed lot is one which will turn out the greatest amount of beef 

 and pork combined from a given quantity of feed. 



The main factor which enters into the economic raising of cattle, is 

 to sceure animals bred for the purpose of making beef, animals which will 

 make a profitable growth and will finish readily. Taking all of our cattle 

 that are shipped to Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha and Denver and the 

 other central markets of the country, the average steer that is three years 

 old weighs less than a thousand pounds when he reaches these central 

 markets. This means that we have produced less than three hundred and 

 fifty pounds of beef, if we disregard the birth w'eight of the calf, annually 

 from the time the calf is born until he finally goes to market. 



PROPER FEEDING ESSENTIAL. 



A well bred calf properly fed, properly grown and then properly 

 finished for market will reach a weight of a thousand pounds when he is 

 fifteen months old. I am speaking now of commercial cattle. Occasionally 

 in the production of show cattle we can secure a weight of a thousand to 

 eleven hundred, or even as high as twelve hundred pounds when they 

 are twelve months of age. When we can modify our methods of feeding 

 and management in such manner as Ho eliminate from eighteen to twenty- 

 four months from the life of a steer and still send him to market at the 



