ECONOMICAL RATIONS IN BEEF PRODUCTION. 



BY H. R. SMITH. 



The determination of methods by which beef production 

 can be made more profitable is one of the important problems 

 now under investigation at the Nebraska Experiment Sta- 

 tion. During recent years the attractive prices offered for 

 corn by the markets of the world have led many stockmen of 

 the State to discontinue their cattle feeding operations and 

 to sell the crop direct to elevator companies for shipment. 

 Others have turned their attention to pork and mutton pro- 

 duction. That beef values have not kept pace with those of 

 corn in the upward trend of recent years is not denied. Nor 

 can it be said that the market quotations for corn-fed beef 

 have been as attractive as the prices offered for finished pork 

 and mutton during the past few years. Nevertheless, cattle 

 feeding has its place, and the industry will be regarded with 

 increasing favor as we learn to more fully appreciate the im- 

 portance of cattle in their relation to the economic manage- 

 ment of our land. 



On practically every farm in the State where grain crops 

 have been grown and sold direct to the elevator for a succes- 

 sion of years the soil is much below the productive capacity 

 of adjoining farms where crop rotation and stock feeding 

 have been practiced. Pork production, good so far as it goes 

 in turning back to the land fertilizing material taken from 

 the soil and profitable as it has been during these years of 

 high prices, should not be carried on to the entire exclusion 

 of all other forms of meat production. The occasional de- 

 struction of an entire herd of swine by the ravages of cholera 

 is a matter to be considered, but as an argument for a greater 

 diversity of live stock on the farm it does not carry the weight 

 of the one great argument, viz., the economical conversion of 



BULL. 100, AGR. EXP. STATION OF NEBR. VOL. XX, ART. I. 



