20 TEXAS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



GENERAL DISCUSSION OF BABY BEEF PRODUCTION. 



There are both advantages and disadvantages in feeding young cattle, 

 calves, and yearlings, for the market, and it will depend upon condi- 

 tions as to whether the feeding of such animals will prove more profit- 

 able than the feeding of older cattle. Chiefly in favor of baby beef 

 production may be mentioned the following arguments: 



1. Young cattle grow, as well as fatten, and require less feed for 

 a given amount of gain, than older cattle. 



2. Young cattle, if of high grade and well finished, command higher 

 prices on the market, as a general rule. 



3. Marketing cattle at an early age affords quicker returns on the 

 money invested and enables the stockman to maintain a larger herd 

 of breeding cattle. 



In favor of feeding cattle two years old or older the following argu- 

 ments may be stated: 



1. Cattle two years old or older have, to a large extent, already 

 attained their growth, and, therefore, fatten and finish more easily 

 than younger cattle, thus requiring a shorter feeding period. 



2. Cattle two years old or older can handle to good advantage a 

 relatively larger amount of roughage or coarse feed than calves and 

 yearlings. In order to obtain desirable finish on the younger animals, 

 a larger proportion of concentrated feed must be fed. 



3. It does not require as much skill and close attention on the part 

 of the feeder in feeding cattle two years old or older as in feeding 

 younger cattle. 



4. The losses through deaths are less among cattle two years old 

 or older than among calves and yearlings. 



While there are other factors which arise from time to time and 

 have a bearing on this question, those which have been stated seem to 

 be the chief ones. They clearly show that in determining the kind of 

 cattle to feed, it depends largely upon the conditions as to whether one 

 should choose calves, yearlings, or older cattle. Those who have avail- 

 able plenty of grain and other concentrated feeds at low prices may, 

 with good management, reap more profit by feeding young cattle. This 

 is especially true of the man who raises his feeder cattle, and at the 

 same time grows the bulk of his grain and roughage. With grain and 

 other concentrated feeds high in price, the same man will likely find 

 it more profitable to carry his feeders to a more advanced age, grow- 

 ing them on pasture and rough feeds and fattening them in a com- 

 paratively short period when they are two or three years old. The man 

 who buys his feeder cattle should, also, be governed as to choice of 

 ages largely by the prices of concentrated feeds, especially firrain, re- 

 membering that calves and yearlings are more difficult to finish than 

 older cattle and that a liberal allowance of grain is generally essential 

 in fattening them, whereas in the case of older cattle a fair degree of 

 finish may be obtained from such feeds as cotton seed meal, cake, and 

 so forth, in combination with various roughages, with the use of little 

 or no grain. 



