CHAPTER XV 



Baby Beef 



WHAT IT IS 



The production of the type of meat animals 

 known as baby beef is a development of compar- 

 atively recent years, and has been brought about 

 by the more intensive conditions of modern 

 American agriculture. In the old days of cheap 

 land and free grass, the idea was to raise cattle 

 until they reached the age of four or five years 

 before marketing. Modern conditions require that 

 the animal intended for slaughter shall receive the 

 maximum amount of growth and be ready for the 

 block as young as possible and with the minimum 

 of expense for labor and feed in the process of its 

 development. It requires much more feed and 

 much more time and keeps the money locked up 

 for a longer period to maintain beef cattle until 

 they are three or four years old before marketing 

 them than if they are given a forced rapid growth 

 and marketed younger, and the returns must be cor- 

 respondingly large in order to pay a profit and in- 

 terest on the initial investment for the longer period. 

 Market conditions in recent years are such that 

 the younger animals command the higher price, 

 and so when the difference in the amount of feed 

 and labor is considered, the balance under farm 

 conditions is likely to be in favor of the shorter 

 feeding period. Under conditions where cattle 

 could subsist upon the free grass of the open range 

 for an indefinite period, it mattered little to the 



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