BREEDING BEEF CATTLE 163 



importance of the selection of a sire should tend to a 

 more active demand for the better grades of registered 

 beef bulls. In the first place, the writer wishes to go 

 on record as saying that the breeder of feeding cattle, 

 whether he fattens them himself or sells them to cattle 

 feeders, can not afford to use a common bull of indis- 

 criminate breeding. There can be no doubt about that. 

 Feeding cattle that are well-bred and possess quality 

 enough to weigh one thousand pounds or better at two 

 years old are worth all the way from $40 to $50 per head, 

 depending upon their individual quality and condition. 

 Such feeding cattle can be and are produced from grade 

 beef cows mated with choice registered beef bulls. Com- 

 mon and inferior feeding cattle that are produced from 

 common cows and scrub or grade bulls frequently attain 

 an age of three or more years before they reach one thou- 

 sand pounds in weight. Such feeders at such an age and 

 weight are worth from $27 to $30 each. The lesson 

 should be plain that it does not pay to use an inferior 

 bull that sires the steer that pays the owner but $9 per 

 year for his keep as against the one that pays $22 to $25 

 per year. It may be claimed that the fault is not alto- 

 gether with the bull. We grant that. But suppose the 

 cows are the same in either case, the well-bred beef bull 

 will produce feeding cattle which will grade at least two 

 grades higher than the feeding cattle produced by the 

 mediocre bull. There is usually about thirty-five cents 

 per hundredweight difference in price between one grade 

 of feeding cattle and the next higher. If the well-bred 

 bull raises the grade of his offspring two grades, he adds 

 to the value of each animal he sires seventy cents per 

 hundredweight or to the one thousand pound steer seven 

 dollars. Properly cared for, a bull should sire from forty 

 to fifty calves in a year. For sake of argument, suppose 

 we say he sires forty. If he should increase the value 

 of each of his offspring but $5, a very conservative esti- 

 mate, he earns at the least $200, with his first crop of 

 calves. At the present time, there are plenty of regis- 



