68 



DRY- FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



One can see that neither lot of cattle was finished, yet the cattle get- 

 ting silage made good and economical gains and made the owner some 

 money, while the cattle on grass made practically no gain and very little 

 profit. 



If one should want to fatten out a bunch of steers on grass it is sug- 

 gested that he winter his steers well, keeping them strong and probably 

 gaining a little all winter. This can be done by the use of wheat pasture 

 or gilage and two or three pounds of cottonseed cake, then when the pas- 

 ture becomes good in the spring turn out on grass and continue to feed 

 cake, giving about three pounds of cake a day to each steer. With such 

 treatment as this the cattle should be ready to go to the market somewhere 

 between the first and the middle of July. One of our cooperators by fol- 

 lowing such a method, this past year, made $4 worth of cake net him 

 $20 in increased value of one bunch of steers over another, just by feeding 

 the cake on grass from about the first of May to the middle of July. 



The above method is recommended to those who wish to ship mature 

 steers from off pasture and not give them a period of full feeding. 



The proposition of calf feeding or the production of "baby beef" has 

 been left to the last, for though very much talked of, it is probably, at the 

 present time, the least practical of all phases of beef production for the 

 average farmer or man of little experience in cattle feeding to enter into 

 There is no part of the beef production problem that is so interesting or 

 has as much promise as the fattening of calves, yet it is the mo.it difficult 

 of all cattle feeding operations and one that requires a great deal of ex- 

 perience and knowledge to carry it out successfully. When a calf is put 

 into the feedlot and given all the feed it will eat, its nature is to grow, and 

 it requires the greatest attention to details on the part of the feeder In 

 the way of handling the calves, selection of, and the right proportions of 

 feeds, to get the properly balanced ration and many other things that the 

 feeder can learn only through experience. Many men, to their sorrow, 

 have tried to fatten out a bunch of calves on a ration of cottonseed meal 

 and silage and other similar feeds, but they found that though the calves 

 made excellent gains the gains were not in the right place; for instead of 

 putting on fat and taking on that prime condition of flesh that is so es- 

 sential to finished "baby beef," they only grew, making their gains in 

 bone and lean meat. 



One cannot go into details, but for a general basal ration for use in 

 calf feeding the following ration is suggested: Twenty to 25 pounds of 

 good silage, 2 to 2% pounds of cottonseed meal, and 10 or 12 pounds of 

 ground kafir, or if the crushed heads are used, use enough to make an 

 equal amount of grain. The feeder, of course, cannot stay strictly with 

 this ration, and it is not intended that he should, for he will have to vary 

 it to suit his conditions, calves, etc. It will probably be a good idea to cut- 

 down the meal even more toward the end of the feeding period. It should 

 have been said before this that one should not expect to feed his calves less 

 than 150 days, and if possible six or eight months. 



As said in the beginning, the feeding of calves is the most' difficult of 



