CHAPTER XIV. 



FEEDING CATTLE FOR THE HOME MARKET 



Feeding cattle for the home market might be com- 

 pared in some ways with breeding horses with a view 

 of producing horses which are best adapted for farm 

 work. It is a relatively easy matter to satisfy the farm 

 horse market as well as the local meat market require- 

 ments for fat cattle. It is not so easy to produce, at a 

 profit, farm horses for the farmer's use or fat cattle for 

 the local butcher. The main reason is that the horses 

 classed as farm horses and the butcher cattle are abun- 

 dant and not of the better grades, hence they are usually 

 low-priced. The farmer does not believe that it is a 

 business proposition for him to pay long prices for horses 

 to be used by poor teamsters for farm work. The local 

 butchers in small cities know that they can not charge 

 for their cuts of meat what would be necessary to secure 

 a profit if they were to buy the best grades of cattle. 



The most popular cattle for the local butcher are 

 fairly well fattened young heifers, weighing from 700 to 

 1000 pounds. These can be purchased cheaper than 

 steers and make very satisfactory beef. The supply of 

 such heifers is not sufficient to meet the demands of the 

 class of trade that uses them, but this does not mean 

 that the short supply will cause materially higher prices, 

 as the local butcher has established a very narrow range 

 of prices. If the supply of heifers becomes inadequate 

 or their price too high he buys cows or plain steers. 



The cattle feeder, therefore, who plans to feed cattle 

 for the local market and make any profit must expect 

 to handle heifers, young cows, and a low grade of steers. 

 These must be purchased as feeders at low prices, fat- 

 tened as economically as possible, and sold before they 



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