FARMER'S 

 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



THE BEEF CATTLE INDUSTRY 



ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF BEEF 

 CATTLE 



Cattle raising for the production of 

 beef has undergone many fluctuations 

 during the brief history of our country. 

 The production of beef has not always 

 been a profitable business, even in the 

 days of the cattle kings When every- 

 thing goes well with cattle, there are 

 large profits in the business; but the 

 risks are great, the initial expense of 

 getting into the business is a serious 

 matter, and the skill required in manag- 

 ing cattle is of no mean order. There 

 are many other considerations, which 

 cause men to choose sheep or hogs in 

 preference. In the first place, cattle 

 mature much more slowly than either 

 sheep or hogs. Then, too, they require 

 more feed for each pound of gain. More- 

 over, the market requirements are very 

 strict in the case of beef, and prices 

 are disastrously low for cattle which 

 do not conform to these standards. Fail- 

 ures for non-conformance to these re- 

 quirements are somewhat less serious in 

 the case of sheep or hogs, and the loss 

 is only a moderately high payment for 

 the experience. 



On the western ranges, sheep have 

 long been rivals of cattle and for the 

 past 15 or 20 years have had much the 

 best of the argument. Greater profits 

 have been derived from sheep. As a 

 natural result, sheep have been gradual- 

 ly replacing cattle in the western 

 states and large tracts of range, which 

 were originally used for cattle grazing, 

 are now devoted entirely to sheep. 



It is scarcely necessary to call atten- 

 tion to the great importance of the 

 cattle industry in the United States. 

 Notwithstanding the fact, as already in- 

 dicated, that profits have not been par- 

 ticularly attractive during the past 

 few years, an increasing number of men 

 are learning how to produce beef at a 

 profit even under conditions which ap- 



pear to be unfavorable to the farmer. 

 Most of our highest finish on beef ani- 

 mals is put on in the corn belt. Not 

 all of these cattle are raised on farms 

 in the central states, but this is true of 

 a considerable percentage of them; and 

 thousands more are shipped in from 

 tbe range to be finished on the cheaper 

 grains of the central states. 



Cautions prompted by experience — 

 The cattle feeders of the central states 

 are gradually learning how to avoid 

 some of the unprofitable practices, which 

 have ruined their predecessors in that 

 line of business. In this work the 

 change in market requirements has 

 helped the feeder considerably. In the 

 early days of the cattle business, a five 

 or six year old steer in an over-fat con- 

 dition was in great favor. Now such an 

 animal cannot compete with the finished 

 steer at the age of two or three, and, 

 within recent years, baby beef has come 

 to occupy an important place in the 

 business of beef production. The ad- 

 vantage of using younger animals is ob- 

 vious, since the capital invested is 

 turned over more rapidly, and the cost 

 of finishing an animal is less when the 

 process lasts only a year or two than 

 when the animal is held on the farm un- 

 til four or five years of age. 



It should not be supposed from this 

 enumeration of cautions that any at- 

 tempt is being made to discourage beef 

 production. The demand for beef is 

 always equal to, and sometimes in ex- 

 cess of, the production, and this must 

 be true as far into the future as it 

 is possible to foresee. The population 

 is increasing at present more rapidly 

 than the increase in beef-raising, and 

 other means than those commonly used 

 at present must be found for keeping 

 up with the demand for beef. It should 

 be understood from the start, however, 

 that antiquated or slovenly methods in 

 beef production cannot bring profits. 



