196 THE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE 



of last year's calves on the Canadian Pacific Railway supply 

 farm at Strathmore should, therefore, be of interest. 



Recently, forty-four steei calves, mostly of Hereford and 

 Shorthorn breeding, which had been running with their dams 



from birth, Mere weaned and placed in feeding pens holding 

 from eight to fifteen head, in the big barn at Strathmore. A 

 few were March calves, but the great, majority w r ere from six 

 to eight months old. Some were of excellent beef type and 

 quality, but, as beyond taking the best of those which happened 

 to be on hand, they were not specially selected, a number more 

 or less lacking from the feeder's standpoint. Calves quite as 

 good, or even better, are readily procurable in Alberta every 

 fall. They averaged in weight on 23rd November slightly 

 over 186 lbs., being scarcely as good in flesh as they would have 

 been had the weather in October and November been more 

 favourable than it was last year. ( iircumstances also prevented 

 the carrying out of a very valuable feature in the production 

 of baby beef, namely, the teaching of the calves to eat chop 

 when still with their dams, thus holding the milk flesh and 

 fon stalling the check at weaning, unavoidable otherwise. 

 Throughout the feeding period the calves had all the fodder 

 t hey would eat up clean. At the beginning, a little restriction 

 was put on the quantity of grain given, 2 lbs. per head per day 

 being the amount started with. By the end of the first month 

 this quantity had been more than doubled, between 6 and 

 7 lbs. per head per day being the grain ration from the begin- 

 ning of full feed until the calves were sold. The grain mixture 

 used at the start was two parts of oats, one part of barley, and 

 one part of bran. About the 1st of February the barley was 

 increased to half the ration, and the same proportion of bran 

 continued. A small quantity of frosted flax, costing a half- 

 penny a pound, was used after the 1st of January, a total of 

 60 bushels being fed from then until the end of April. All the 

 grain required was valued at the market prices prevailing from 

 the same at the end of October — oats at 1/11, barley 2/10| per 

 bushel, and bran £4/14/8 per ton. With the grinding, the grain 

 figured to approximately fd. per lb. Green oat sheaves fur- 

 nished the bulk of the fodder, about 2 lbs. of oat sheaves to 

 1 lb. of hay being the proportion. The oat sheaves were valued 



