Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1881-03-10
How 10 Produce Beef I'm the Cheapest
Manner.

Carefully conducted experiments for
several years past have enabled cattle
feeders to prove that beef of good quail
lty can be most cheaply produced by
giving their animals, from birth up to
slaughter, all such suitable food as
they will daily eat and digest we'll.
Steers of the most improved breeds
may be made by this method, as gen.
eral rule, to weigh from 1000 to 1900
pounds at eighteen to twenty months
of age, and extra choice at the same
age exceed these weights by several
hundred pounds. In pushing animals
up to, or near maturity In this rapid
manner, In order to obtain the best
quality of flesh, they must have sufi-
cient exercise In the open air, and be
exposed TO the healthful influence OF
sunshine as much as possible. There
is nothing equal to good old grass pas
ture to obtain all this, and the longer
the steers can be kept out upon 1t the
more advantageous It will be to them.
Many feeders provide cornfields for
their steers to run In during winter,
contending that they are nearly an
equivalent to the grass pastures OF
summer. If strip Of forest, with
soil sufficiently porous to absorb the
rain as fast as 1t falls Is near by for
the cattle to shelter themselves at
nj ght and in stormy weather, they
will do better often than In yards or
stables. The fallen leaves of forest
trees make one of the warmest and
best Of beds, and cattle enjoying the
benefits Of these come out in the spring
like the deer, elk and other wild ami
mails, in excellent health, we'll ll.feshed
thrifty and with the finest and smooth
est Of coats. l have never seen do
nestle animals In the Western States
show superior condition in the spring
to those which were thus wlntered.
Their beef, also, when slaughtered,
proves, after all this exposure and ex-
ercise, nicer and more evenly marbled
with crater percentage of tender,
juicy lean, which alone Is what the
consu mer wants, and not gross fat
which often abounds to an excess in
the stall-fed, unexercised, sun-shaded
animal. That fattened in the open air
is not only the juiciest and highest ia
vored, but, pound for pound, It proves
the most nourishing and consequently
the most economical both for the pre-
ducer and consumer. The production
thus gives high satisfaction and be-
comes pleasure to all concerned.
This pushing for early maturity is
undoubtedly best where the soil is
rich and grass aud grain consequently
abundant. But on poor lands, and
especially when stony and hilly, later
maturity is found about as profitable,
aad If the cattle are of o right sort the
flesh gets a better chance to fully
ripen. and upon the whole is perhaps
of superior quality. On such lands
cattle Craze freely In summer, and are
fed hay and corn-stalks in winter.
Thus treated they attain full growth
of frame at no great cost at four to five
years old. Early in summer they are
then taken to rich pastures, where
they fatten rapidly, and In the course
Of few months become choice beef.
In this way, and also by subsequent
stall-feedi ng for an additional time,
greater gaia of flesh per day during
the fattening process has been obtain
ed after the above ages than / have as
yet met reported for the first and Sec
ond years of such as were rapidly
pushed from birth. The utmost gain
of those found at the late Fat Stock
Show in Chicago was 1,47 to 40
pounds per day Tor bullocks from 6IS
to 952 days old. while that of those past
four or five years old, spoken of above
during the time fed for slaughter,
am informed, has often reached two
and one fourth to three pounds, and
even more, per day. This method OF
feeding is followed somewhat in the
Eastern States, but more largely on
pasture alone generally on the vast
plains of the West. 1t Is pursued also
moderately in the United Kingdom,
where cattle are kept till four to five
years old in the mountainous districts
of Ireland, Scotland, England and
Wales.