FEEDING BEEF CATTLE 291 



keep the young cattle growing rather than to fatten them. 

 While it is true that young stock thus fed will make gains more 

 rapidly and more cheaply, the cattle will oftentimes lack in finish 

 because they have been growing rather than fattening. The 

 kind of roughage determines, in part, the kind of grain that 

 should be fed. When the cattle are being fed a dry roughage 

 containing much protein, as clover, alfalfa, or cowpea hay, the 

 grain may contain a correspondingly less amount of protein. 

 On the other hand, when the dry forage lacks the protein, the de- 

 ficiency should be made up by feeding a grain rich in protein, 

 as cotton-seed or linseed meal. In addition, the length of the 

 fattening period will have an influence on the kind of grain to 

 feed. If the period is short, it will be necessary to feed very 

 fattening foods, such as corn and cotton-seed meal, from the 

 beginning; whereas if the cattle are to be fed 150 days or more, 

 they may be given foods containing less fat during the early 

 stages of the feeding period. 



BABY-BEEF 



By baby-beef is meant fat cattle between one and two years 

 of age and weighing from 800 to 1100 pounds. Of recent years 

 much has been written concerning the advantages of producing 

 this class of beef. A general perusal of the recent literature on 

 beef production would lead one to think that it is far more 

 profitable to produce beef from young animals than from ani- 

 mals possessing some age, and yet the practical cattle feeder has 

 continued to employ two-year-old cattle in his feeding opera- 

 tions. The experiment literature has in a large measure 

 fostered the idea that beef could be more profitably produced 

 by feeding younger cattle. These recommendations are based 

 largely on the fact that the younger animal will make much 

 more economical gains than older animals. There are, however, 

 many factors besides economic gains entering into profitable beef 

 production. 



