STARVING 



Your 



ALVF'S and yearlings do not do 

 ;' as well in corn-belt feed lots as 



^ they did 10-30 years ago. Tlicy 



gain slower because "tlie quality 

 ol the grain is not what it was 20 

 years ago. I definitely think a row can 

 stand at a corn crib on some corn-belt 

 farms and slowly starve to death." 



These claims highlighted the 21st 

 Cattle Feeders' Day in late October at 

 the Illinois (College of Agriculture. The 

 speaker was C. E. Johnson, former 

 Iroquois county, Illinois, farm adviser 

 and cattle feeder who now is growing 

 feeder calves in Colorado. He spoke 

 on "\\ hat the Rancher and Corn-Belt 

 Feeder Have in Common." 



More than 1,500 cattle men also 

 heard R. Vi'. Grieser. Chicago Produc- 

 ers" Commission declare that prolonged 

 strikes in steel and coal would hurt fat 

 cattle prices. But when the strikes arc 

 settled, the immediate future for well- 

 fed cattle pricis will he bright. 



And the importance of low-cost, high- 

 protein [jastures in a steer feeding pro- 

 gram was emphasized in reports by R. 

 R. Snapp. head of beef cattle work at 

 the college, and R. J. W I'bb. superin- 

 tendent of the Dixon Spring> Kxperi- 

 nii'iit Station in southern Illinois. 



A. F. Grandt. agronomist, reported on 

 college tests in pasturing sicers oti 

 strip-mine '■-puil banks" which li a il 

 been resccde.d. and Fred Francis e\- 

 plained the amoinit of feed needed to 

 finish choice heifer calves to good, 

 choice, and ))rinic carcass finish. 



.Iohn>on called on his audience to "be 

 crusaders in the niovenicnt" back to a 

 grasslatid-liveslock type of farming. 



■"."^oil mining catit go on fore\cr." he 

 asserted, '"and voii tattle feeders know 

 it. ^ on stockmen arc goiiig to ha\c to 

 lead and show the way back to soil 

 building or vour entire agriculture is 

 going to suffer. 



""M\ records as a feeder in Iroquois 

 countv. Illinois, disclosed that it look 

 over 1 I |)i'r cent more corn to |)ut on 

 100 |iounds of beef in 1016 than in 

 l'^'>6." Johnson declared. "Assimie that 

 it took only seven per cent more. A 

 se\en per cent decline in 10 years is a 

 lot in terms of the life of a county, state, 

 or nation. That would be 70 per cent 

 in 100 years. 



"I bought 40.000 to 60.000 bushels 

 ol corn a year. It ail came from grain 

 tariucrs. as livestock men had none to 

 sell. Iroquois county is a surjylus grain 

 area. The average farmer docs not feed 

 any livestock and so doesn't produce 

 any manure. The same is true of many 

 Illinois counties. True, you use fer- 

 tilizers, a little clover, but in general 

 your luck has about run out on raising 

 qualit) feeds on "farmed-out" land. 



"I tried to protect myself by buying 

 corn from limed, phosphated. and clo- 

 vered land. There just wasn't enough 

 corn available from this sort of land. 

 I finally decided I was too old to do 

 anything about it and moved. Truly it 

 was a decidins; factor In m\ leaving 

 Illinois. 



"I may be old-fashiom'd but. coming 

 back after three years, the thing I notice 

 most is the innnber of fa'rms that have 

 no livestock. Many farms vvilh no fenc- 

 es can't even r-are for a milk cow. All 

 the experimental evidence to the con- 

 trary, no snbstitiile has been found for 

 manure as a soil builder, and soil is 

 basic." 



Johnson claimc<l lliat marnae was 

 largely responsible for consistent yields 

 of 100 to 12.T bushels of corn an acre 

 in northern Colorado and the Arkansas 

 valley. Four tons of alfalfa an acre is 

 lonnnoM. 



True, they irrigate. Johnson atlmillcd. 

 but their grain is off alfalfa «o(l that 



has had manure, tons of it to the acre. 

 The grain is high in jjrotein and miti- 

 erals. Goo<l feeders are making gains 

 of .learly I iree pounds a day on their 

 cattle, he said. 



In presenting the "neef (ialtlc OiU- 

 look." Grieser fell thai despite the threat 

 of strikes, "we have a very good slaugh- 

 ter cattle market now. and the prospects 

 seem to point lo another profitable year 

 for the better-than-average cattle feed- 

 er." 



The veteran Chicago cattle buver 

 (uited that the rale of national income 

 now i> high, and general business con- 

 dilion* for the coming vear are by far 

 the chief factor that will govern cattle 

 prices because the supply will not 

 change nnich. He said that if the big 

 strikes were settled soon, there would 

 be a good prospect of making a profit 

 this year in short-feeding two-year-old 

 steers and yearling heifers." 



In his report. R. R. Snapp explained 

 one test in which 60 steers made 6f^! per 

 cent of their 100-pound gain during a 

 12-month feeding period on pasture and 

 roughage. 



"Our gains in the lObS-lO feeding 

 trial were the cheapest we've ever been 

 able to make during three tests of this 

 feeding system." Snapp said. '"The 

 estimated feed cost per 100 pouinU of 

 gain was ordv S16..^.^." 



\^ ebb explained the strong and weak 

 points ol eight dilTerent methods f>f 

 handling cattle that were tested at 

 Dixon .Springs Station. 



Grandt reported that steers gained al- 

 most as well oti stripmine "spoil banks" 

 that had been reseeded to legume-grass 

 pasture as similar steers grazing on 

 native bluegrass or improved pasture. 



Francis' report showed that it does 

 not pay to finish heifer calves to any 

 higher carcass finish than their starting 

 live grade, because the cost of gain is 

 too hiuh. 



auuu JLMuonfrTnsTmr vHuin: :)Uui,HitK iittk PKWt bLAUC 



< A.,,,.,.., 



\. n J O. 



Pholn 



What the tattle gel to 

 eat determines to a 

 great extent the 

 quality of the beef 

 they will deliver over 

 the butther's counter^ 

 This difference was 

 shown in a display at 

 the Cattle feeders* 

 Day program at the 

 University of Illinois 

 College of Agritul- 

 ture. 



i N S 

 C 



I. A. A. RECORD 



