The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1878-04-12
FarMers' GnlMlnll.
Speed the PLOsU."
The Production OF Beet.

| contributes valuable ana interesting ar
ticle to late number of the Country
Gentleman, on the production of beef He
contends that a judicious system of feed
ing, that will produce steer of 400 lbs.
when two years old, will enable the eastern
farmer to compete successfully in his own
home market with beef of western growth
He verifies his position by citing actual re-
suits, and says:
The cost of growing beef increases with
the age and weight of the animal; and
hence those intended for beef should not be
kept beyond two years, or two years and a
half at farthest. By this system of full
feeding at an early age, calves NAV be
grown to the weight ofS00 or 1000 pounds
in one year. By the common system of
feeding this weight is seldom reached at
the age of two years. 1t is found to be
universal law that the young animal takes
the least amount of food to produce n
pound of growth; and that each succeeding
pound of growth, up to full maturity, costs
more than the preceding pound. This
has been established by facts and NAV be
laid down as law. Hence full feeding
view. \ i Il i:
The calf should have sweet milk three
times day for the first three weeks, and
after this time, sweet skinned milk NAV
be given, little oat meal cooked and adj
ded to the milk. If little hay tea, with
an egg broken in it, should be given, less
milk will do. When three months old, n
little corn meal, cooked, or flax seed meal,
should be mixed with the oat meal Dor
| mi oh H.
til the calf is three months old, and after
this, in combination, oats and corn ground
one bushel of corn to two of oats. mixed
with wheat bran. Grass in summer. and
clover aftermath in winter. Keep the an
petite strong, and never overfeed. A varie.
ty of food is found preferable to any single
kind. Steamed food promotes growth
more readily, and the quantity required is
less. Hay roo g, straw, c0rnstalks, with
meal added, and little salt, should be
steamed together. A flavor is given to the
hay, straw and cornstalks from being steam
ed with the meal, that provokes the appe-
tite, and causes the whole mass to be ean
crly devoured The animals should be
kept in dimly lighted, warm stable, and
| allowed to run in the open yard and sun
shine for two hours every day and abund-
|
But the farmer will ask me where the
margin Of profit, under this system of full
feeding and early maturity, is-a very nat
ural, business like question, and will an.
swer it in business like, conclusive way.
We will take the average gain of good.
thrifty calves of the Short Horn or the
Holstein breed, fed upon ten quarts per day
of SKINNED milk for the first ninety days,
with an average of halfpound of oatmeal
and one pound of wheat mddlings after
the first ten days, giving much less at first,
but increasing it to that amount, and the
second three months five quarts of milk,
one pound of oatmeal and two pounds of
wheat middlings per day, with pasture or
cut grass. The cost then, of the first six
months, will be for milk, 1850 quarts, at
half cent Il quart for the skinned milk.
1913; 80 pounds of oatmeal 00c. 81
pounds of corn meal, S1.S2; 272 pounds of
middlings, S2.O2; 100 pounds of hay, or
its value ia grass, during the first ninety
days, 5Oc. pasture three months at 15c.
per week, S1.S1--in all 1887 With this
feed a calf should weigh 500 pounds at six
months. The second six months it will re.
quire 10 pounds ofhay per day, or 1920
pounds, $40; 1S2 pounds corn meal,
$500; 3 pounds per day ofmiddlings, SAG
pounds, at SIS per ton, S4.10-amounting
to $lG.S4 and the gain should be 81
pounds per day, or 40 pounds, averaging
at one year old go pounds, costing
S30.72.
The second summer, pasture ut SOC. per
week, will cost $3.50; pounds per day of
middlings or oats, %4.10-total, $1l.9O. -
The second winter he will require IS
pounds of bay per day, or 2,730 pounds,
S13.65; 6 pounds of corn meal per day,
$l0.42; pounds of bran per day, $54G;
total cost of second year, S4193. The
steer will gain on an average 4 pounds per
day, or SAT pounds, weighing, at two years
old, LAST pounds. The cost of the steer,
at our figures, when two years old, is S72 IS.
The market value at this season of the year
and for this kind of beef, will Mt least Gle
per pound live weight, and he will DC
worth S94.70. This leaves II profit of
S22.15, and certainly handsome one, us
the manure made is worth all the labor,
and it will he seen that we have given full
market prices for the most expensive food.
While looking at these figures it is sur
prising that farmers should raise grain and
abandon the production of beef; that they
do not take into consideration this unwise
policy of raising and selling grain on the
future condition Of the land. To raise
grain and sell it, robs the soil it is to the
farm murder in the first degree. But If he
will feed his CT IS, he makes market at
home, increases his profits, and what is of
the utmost Importance, secures the fertility
of the land. He has to compete with the
rich cheap lands OF the west, as surely in
raising grain, as in making beef. The
price of western grain in his home market
is his price, and he has not escaped the
competition. If he raises small fruits, and
garden truck, his profits will not be GER
tain for such are the facilities of rapid
transportation, that the supplies of these
articles from the South have taken the first
market and the best prices and in fact,
the only prices that are remunerative. |
say try the production of beef; the full
feeding, early maturing system will pay.
The old system of buying two year-od
steers and keeping them year will not
pay; for when the animal is bought, the
time of life is past when feeding could be
made to pay. The farmer should procure
the right breed, raise his calves, crowd them
from the start, and then realize when two
years old. This system will pay, and so
increase fertilizers as to double the grain
crop in very short time-for manuring is
the life of farming.