STOCK RAISING AND SOIL FERTILITY 



191 



is,> therefore, in feeding, must be con- 

 sidered on the basis of the market value 

 of the crop and the price of beef. If 

 corn and hay are cheap, feeders low, and 

 finished beef high, there is a good mar- 

 gin of profit. 



There is another phase also that must 

 be considered. A farmer located several 

 miles from the railroad is at consider- 

 able expense to haul his crops to mar- 

 ket. If he feeds his crop he does away 

 with the expense of hauling and his fat 

 cattle can walk to market. The freight 

 too, on the carload of fat cattle is con- 

 siderably less than it would be on the 

 five or six carloads of feed required to 

 produce a carload of cattle. 



There are thousands of farmers 

 throughout the corn belt who feed from 



At present there is an indication that 

 beef production will constitute a grow- 

 ing feature of both eastern and south- 

 ern agriculture. In building up the ex- 

 hausted soils of the cotton and tobacco 

 states, stock is needed. The shipment of 

 feeders from the West to the eastern 

 and southern states, where manure is 

 valued by each cartload, promises satis- 

 factory returns, even where nothing is 

 made on the beef, if the manure is ob- 

 tained at a clear profit. The millions 

 of dollars annually spent for factory 

 fertilizers could, in a large measure, be 

 saved to the farmer by a carefully 

 planned system of stock feeding. 



Baby beef farming—The relatively 

 long time required by cattle to reach 

 marketable size has led to the develop- 



ing. 139 — TRACTION ENGINE FOR USE ON LARGE RANCHES 



one to 10 carloads of beef cattle 

 throughout the winter, using their own 

 home grain and buying grain in addi- 

 tion. 



1 There are also many feeders located 

 near the large cities who buy both feed 

 and cattle. This was once a highly 

 developed industry about Minneapolis 

 and St. Paul, and other northwestern 

 cities, where mill screenings were abun- 

 dant and cheap. This industry has 

 declined lately, owing to the increased 

 cost of the screenings. Where all the 

 feed is bought, the profit in the busi- 

 ness lies in adding 250 to 300 pounds 

 to the weight of the animals and sell- 

 ing the whole animal at a slight ad- 

 vance on the cost. When fee-Is are low 

 and beef high, there is a profit, but this 

 is more or less speculative farming. 



ment of a system of forced feeding for 

 the production of what is known as 

 baby beef. By this system it is planned 

 to have the calves dropped in the fall. 

 They are taught to eat grain at as early 

 an age as possible and given the best 

 hay. The following spring they are 

 turned out to pasture and the grain 

 ration still kept up. By fall they are 

 ready to put in the feeding pen and 

 forced on grain, hay and silage, and 

 marketed after about six months' feed- 

 ing, or when from 14 to 18 months old. 

 This method of feeding is successful 

 only with the better beef grade stock. 

 Scrubs mature too slowly for forcing. 

 This system takes advantage of the fact 

 that much less food is reqidred to pro- 

 duce a pound of gain during the grow- 

 ing period of the animal than at any 



