100 



Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 



observable that there is no such thing as 'warming up' or 'short feeding' 

 calves intended for the buyers of prime baby beef. Cattle may be 16 

 to 18 months of age and afterward warmed up a bit, but they will not 

 class as baby beef and they will not bring the prices of that article." 

 Good breeding essential.^Baby beef can only be produced from 

 well-bred calves, as only well-bred ones mature early enough to meet 

 the market requirements for this kind of cattle. Such calves are hard 

 to buy and the producer of baby beef cannot feel assured of obtaining 

 them season after season by purchase, but is practically compelled to 

 breed them for his own use. As breeding and feeding are rather dis- 

 tinct lines of enterprise, and as few feeders care to maintain a breeding 



Fig. 25. — Baby beeves on feed. Grade Hereford calves in the feed-lot of 

 E. M. Cassady and Sons, Whiting, Iowa. 



herd, or have facilities for doing so, baby beef production is much less 

 followed than would be the case if good calves were readily available. 

 Furthermore, it has been shown that only those feeders skilled in the 

 art of finishing cattle, and fully equipped to give the animals every 

 chance, can successfully produce baby beef. 



Increased production of baby beeves. — As long as thin two- and 

 three-year-old steers may be purchased for feeding, there will be no 

 marked increases in baby-beef production. The time is now at hand, 

 however, when a large percentage of beef cattle must not only be fed 

 on the farms of theMississippi and Missouri valleys, but bred there 



