52 Western Live-stock Management 



rectly to the butcher or packer, we seldom speak of a 

 separate process of fattening; but when these range 

 steers are taken to the farms, put into feed lots, and 

 kept on full feed for a few months, we speak of "fatten- 

 ing" them, and the men who carry on this business are 

 called "feeders." In some localities the business is car- 

 ried on primarily with the idea of fattening cattle, which 

 would otherwise be in unsalable condition. More com- 

 monly, however, it is conducted with the idea of market- 

 ing surplus feeds. The larger part of the feeding takes 

 place in the Corn-Belt, but a considerable amount is done 

 in the irrigated portions of the West. Since the feed used 

 in the West is almost always alfalfa, the feeder is usually 

 a farmer who grows a quantity of alfalfa for which he 

 must find some market, hence he buys steers in the fall 

 and fattens them during the winter and sells them when 

 fat. Many of these feeders buy all the steers they feed 

 and do not raise any cattle at all. Such feeders may 

 have no pasture land or range. The fattening of cattle 

 is usually confined to the larger irrigated valleys which 

 produce a surplus of alfalfa which is not needed for win- 

 tering stock or for shipment to the cities. The details of 

 the feeding business will be taken up in Chapter V. 



