TEE BEEF CATTLE INDUSTRY 



It is only men who have learned how, 

 and know the present market require- 

 ments, who will succeed in producing 

 beef at a fair profit. 



Annual consumption — The total num- 

 ber of beef cattle at present held 

 in the United States on farms and 

 ranges, is about 44,000,000. During 

 1905, 12,500,000 beef animals were 

 slaughtered, of which 875,000 were ex- 

 ported. The average value of these 

 animals was about $41.50 a carcass. 

 There are also about 2,000,000 calves 



BEEF BREEDS 



Perhaps the first question which en- 

 ters the mind of any person who intends 

 to go into the beef business, concerns the 

 choice of a breed of beef cattle. We 

 therefore, characterize the different 

 breeds of beef animals, with notes on 

 their relative importance and their 

 chief advantages and disadvantages. 



Shorthorns — We commence with this 

 breed for the reason that of all breeds of 

 beef cattle, this is the most popular. 

 Shorthorns are also commonly called 

 Durhams, from the English county in 



W^m^i- 



Fig. 234 — THE SHORTHORN BULL LAVENDER CLIPPER 



killed annually for veal. The number 

 of adult beef cattle slaughtered annual- 

 ly is approximately 20 per cent of the 

 total number on hand. Among the ap- 

 proximately 44,000,000 beef animals in 

 the country at present, not over one- 

 half, or 22,000,000, are cows; these cows 

 will yield a crop of calves amounting to 

 about 80 per cent annually, or 17,600,- 

 000; deducting the 12,500,000 adult 

 animals slaughtered annually, and 2,000,- 

 000 calves, we have left a possible in- 

 crease of 3,100,000 upon the total num- 

 ber of beef animals in the country. 



which the breed originated. These ani- 

 mals were developed by improving the 

 Teeswater and Holderness cattle with 

 slight admixtures of Dutch bulls and 

 Galloways. Sborthorns had already been 

 introduced into this country about 1790, 

 and importations have occurred with 

 great frequency since 1815. Among 

 prominent early breeders of Shorthorns 

 in this country we have Lewis F. Allen 

 and William Warfield. The first volume 

 of the American Shorthorn Herd Book 

 was published in 1846, and that of the 

 Ohio Southern Shorthorn Record in 

 1878. 



