176 THE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE 



Breeding and IVIanagement. 



"The cows are offered service at any time during tlie year, 

 there being no fixed service period. Thus, calves are dropped 

 every month. The method of service is to take the stabk^d bulls 

 down to the various watering places and to await the arrival of 

 the cows from the veld. In this way there may be served, say, 

 four or more cows in a morning, and in the afternoon, different 

 bulls are taken down. It has been found inadvisable to allow a. 

 bull more than three cows in any one day. Thus, the dry 

 herd, at the height of the season, will require the services of as 

 many as six different bulls in the one day. In the far distant 

 camps there are erected bull sub-stations, so that the bulls may 

 be kept at their stations without the long trek back to head- 

 quarters, being fed and cared for near one of the watering 

 installations. 



"Heifers are mated usually about twenty months to two years 

 old, according to size, it having been found that to allow them to 

 go any longer engenders barrenness, owing to their being too 

 fat to settle to the bull. Taking the average, the percentage 

 of calves per annum, or the breeding etticiency of the herd, is in 

 the neighbourhood of 60 to 65 per centum. As stated above, 

 calves are dropped every month. It has been observed that 

 those calves born in the dry winter months are slower in 

 maturing. It is a matter for consideration whether the 



additional expense for bulls and the risk incurred in having a 

 definite breeding season would be entirely counterbalanced by 

 the admittedly greater uniformity of the young stock which 

 would ensue. Calves are weaned usually at ten months, or 

 younger. Bull calves are castrated at from three to ten days 

 old. Weaners are run well towards the outskirts of the ranch, 

 and after a year those heifers of satisfactory size are returned 

 to one of the breeding herds. Oxen are drafted on to good 

 rearing veld at nine months, well away from the centre of the 

 ranch, where they grow out, and, when about three years of age, 

 drafts of oxen are taken on to the best veld and given some 

 months in which to finish. 



"The oxen reared on the ranch are large, of a desirable ])eef 

 type, though somewhat long in the leg, and, perhaps, I'ather 

 coarse in the front ; they are weighty and otherwise of good 

 conformation, and dress out well at slaughter. 



"The following i)articulars of oxen from the ranch at four 

 years, exhibited at the agricultural show at Johannesburg on the 

 'Sth to 9th April, 1915, and slaughtered at the municipal 



