Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1897-12-29
CATTLE BREEDING.

Jacob Achenbach, In the Beef Steer
report spoken of last week, says:
Twelve of my 20 years. experience
in the cattle business have been In
Kansas. raise most of my feeders
and prefer cross between Shorthorns
and Herefords. l let my calves run
with their dams; castrate at two or
three months; wean them at five or SIX,
and grain them through the first win
ter, giving two quarts per head per day
OF shelled corn Though oats is better).
find that calves which suck till six
months old grow faster and go on dry
feed in the fall with less stunning than
ter l Craze in summer and feed sweet
| sorghum and kaffir- corn hay on buffalo
grass in winter until fattening or sell
ling time. l sell at three years; if for
feeders in October or November; if
fat, in February and March. Steers of
my own raising mature earlier, and on
account of being quieter will take on
flesh faster than those l buy. Central
Texas cattle fatten better their second
winter i'll Kansas. Two-year- olds, full
fed through March, April. and May, to
a weight of 1000 or LOO pounds, are
the best for putting on the market now
adays, although small farmer with
only three or four steer calves had bet
ter feed them we'll during the first win
ter and sell in the spring. Dehorning
makes big improvement in cattle;
they are worth 81 more per head for
feeding, as they are quieter, will gain
faster, load two more head in car,
and sell 10 cents per hundred higher on
the market. dehorn when one year
old, with saw. 1t does not pay, In
this part of the state, to build sheds tor
fattenlng cattle. No more than 100
head should be fattened in one lot. [
prefer rock salt both for corral and pas
ture. Before shipping cattle L feed on
ly hay or straw for day or two and
keep them away from water.
1t costs me Is to % cents a month
per head to Craze nay cattle on the
| range, where, by the way, they do bet
ter than on tame grass. Buffalo grass
is at its best in september and October,
but my cattle have gained 100 pounds
per month on it during the four months
from May to August, inclusive. 1 can
change cattle from pasture to a full
grain feed in week or ten days. 1
never grain steers on a good pasture;
do not think it pays, though L often
can profitably give "roughness' while
the cattle are on buffalo grass. Sor-
ghum and kaffir- corn hay used alone in
wintering 500 head of COWS produced
some gain, and these feeds mixed with
prairie hay have also proven satisfac-
tory. Ihave found good corn fodder
and oat straw best for feeding with
corn. "Roughness" fed with grain to
fattening cattle ought always to be of
good quality. Alfalfa is the best of
| the hays; prairie hay is worth about
one-half as much; red clover, millet,
| and sorghum or kaffir-corn with the
seed on, three fourths, while sorghum
hay and oat straw are only 25 per cent
better than prairie hay, and wheat
| straw not so good. My most profitable
| crop for cattle feed is mixture of sor-
ghum and kaffir- corn, sown with a
| drill. OF the ground feeds used, kaffir-
corn meal mixed with corn-chop gave
good results, as did also a meal made by
grinding together corn, wheat, and kaf-
| fir-corn. For this last / used cast
burrs, with steam-engine for power;
capscit SO bushels per hour, making
the cost of grinding cents per bushel,
the price of the mill being SIS. Fat
tening cattle should have grain con-
| stantly before them. A satisfactory
method for using corn is to give it ear
and fodder together to cattle in the
open lot"