Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-09-02
At What Age to Fatten Steers.

Few 3-year-old states steers are now
fed, and no 4-year-olds. The great
bulk of feeding steers grown on farms
are now what are known as 2's past, OF
about 80 months old, when put in the
lots, and from "a to SO months old when
sold. Not a few yearlings now go into
the lots and quite a percentage Of calves
which go to market fat a year old. This
is a practical shortening up to about a
year on each class.
In the nature of things there can be
no concensus of opinion for the reason
that the circumstances on each farm va.
ries, and circumstances alter cases.
Reading farmers are now becoming ia.
miliar with the law of growth-whether
in OK, hog O sheep-that the older and
larger the animal, the greater per cent.
of food is required for the food of sup.
port, and hence the less is available for
the food of increase. The number of
pounds of gain that a certain number of
pounds of a given ration will make con
stantly decreases with the age of the
animal until a point is reached where
feeding wastes.
1t will not do, however, to look at
questions of this kind at all times from
a purely theoretical point of view. 1t
is not food, but the cost of food about
which the farmer is most concerned.
If the farmer, to take a concrete case,
has a fine bunch of yearling past steers
IN the fall and corn enough to fatten
them, worth fifty cents q bushel on the
farm, and also a great abundance of
hay, cornstalks and winter and summer
pasture, he may wisely hesitate as to
whether it is not better for him to sell
his corn and carry his steers through on
hay and corn fodder and raise a crop of
cheaper corn to fatten them. 1t is quite
true that the same amount of corr will
put on more pounds than a year hence;
it is also quite true that his steers will
have consumed more pounds of feed in
proportion to live weight; but it is also
probable, the price being the same, that
they will eat less moneys worth.
There is also another condition. A
great deal depends on the class of steers
he has to handle. If his steers are Of
improved breeds and have been gener-
ously fed from birth, he might well
pause and consider whether he had bet
ter not push them from the start, and at
any rate whether he can do less than
half feed so as to keep up growth. Or
the other hand, if his cattle are scrubby
and have been used to hardships from
birth, he runs no risk whatever in carry:
ing these over, and for two reasons; one,
they could not make the best use Of
fifty cent corn, and the other that they
will endure h%ardships much better thar
the we'll bred steers.
There is still another condition. The
calf costs the use and the keep Of a COW
one year. Is it better to keep twice the
number of COWS and feed off at a year OF
a year and a half old, or keep twice the
usual number and feed off at two years
or two and a halfp
These are all practical questions thai
must be taken into account in determin.
ing at what age to feed steers. The
same rule applies to sheep and hogs a.
well. The best that can be done is tc
get a clear conception of the law OF
growth and of all the facts bearing or
the case, and then decide. Each mar
will have to decide for himself and il
the light of the facts as they exist or
the farm.-Cor. Iowa Homestead,