136 THE WORLD \S MEAT FUTURE 



Making Baby Beef in Alberta. 



Although considerable numbers of three and even four year old 

 grassrfed steers still eouie from the ranges of Alberta, the 

 rapidly-increasing production of grain and cultivated fodders is 

 tending to bring a])out the marketing of cattle at a much earlier 

 age than was usual under the old conditions. For some years 

 past, sales of two-year-old fat steers, and, unfortunately, also 

 heifers, have been increasing in frequency, but baby beef has 

 until now been unknown on the Alberta market. The follo\nng 

 brief statement of an experiment in the fattening of last year's 

 calves on the Canadian Pacific Railway supply farm at Strath- 

 more should, therefore, be of interest. 



Recently, forty-four steer calves, mostly of Hereford and 

 Shorthorn breeding, which had been running with their dams 

 from birth, were weaned and placed in feeding pens holding 

 from eight to fifteen head, in the big barn at Strathmore. A 

 few were March calves, but the great majority were from six to 

 eight months old. Some were of excellent beef type and quality, 

 but, as beyond taking the best of those which happened to be on 

 hand, they were not specially selected, a number more or less 

 lacking from the feeder's standpoint. Calves quite as good, 

 or even better, are readily procurable in Alberta every fall. 

 They averaged in weight on 23rd Nloveraber slightly over 486 

 lbs., being scarcely as good in flesh as they would have been had 

 the weather in October and November been more favourable 

 than it was last year. Circumstances also prevented the 

 carrying out of a very valuable feature in the production of baby 

 beef, namely, the teaching of the calves to eat chop when still 

 with their dams, thus holding the milk flesh and forestalling the 

 check at weaning, unavoidable other^^'ise. Throughout the 

 feeding period, the calves had all the fodder they would eat up 

 clean. At the beginning, a little restriction w^as put on the 

 quantity of grain given, 2 lbs. per head per day being the 

 amount started with. By the end of the first month, this 



quantity had been more than doubled, between 6 and 7 lbs. per 

 head per day being the grain ration from the beginning of full 

 feed until the calves were sold. The grain mixture used at the 

 start was two parts of oats, one part of barley, and one part 

 of bran. About the 1st -of February the barley was increased 

 to half the ration, and the same proportion of bran continued. 

 A small quantity of frosted flax, costing a halfpenny a pound, 

 was used after the 1st of January, a total of 60 bushels being 

 fed from then until the end of April. All the grain required 



