The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1899-11-16

Readers of the Farmers Review
have doubtless heard through the daily
press that a bunch of grade steers re-
Gently sold at the Union Stock Yards
for s. hundred pounds, live weight.
They are also aware that finished"
cattle are selling daily well up to
the seven dollar mark and possibly
wonder why their cattle do not COM
mand similar prices The present
rates in the most satisfactory way
what the Farmers Review has for
years been preaching in these columns.
We have insisted that it costs less
smoney to mature high-grade pre-
cocious steer than it does one of scrub
type and attributes. 1t is early ma
turity that counts in this proposition
and early maturity means the posses
sion of an innate predisposition to as
simulate the largest possible percent
age of food nutrients in the shortest
possible time and turn it into profit
able beef of the best quality. This pre-
disposition is bred in the animal from
its sire and dam and can neither be
expected nor obtained unless the sire
is good representative of thorough
ly fixed breed noted for beef produc-
ton. The old-fashioned. lOng-horned.
big-boned, rough type of steer ma
tured slowly and did not put the meat
and fat on the best places. One had
to feed them for three or four years
before they were fit to sell and when
the cost was counted the balance was
found to be ON the wrong side Of the
ledger. They found this out in the
great ranches of the west and have
now practically abandoned the use q
scrub bulls and are infusing the
blood of pure bred Herefords, Short
horns, Aberdeen-Angus and Galloway
bulls into their herds. The result 10
that today the old Texan steer type
is dying out, the feeding period has
been materially shortened and the
quality of product has been vastly i'm
proved.
Renewed prosperity and activity
throughout the country have wonder
fully increased the consumption of
meat for we find the consumption il
dependent upon the nations activity.
Increased consumption, too, has led
to a demand for better quality and
this can only be supplied by better
bred animals that are also properly
cared for. There was a time when
the owner of the average farm cow
did not care what the calf was sired
by so long as the cow became fresh
and produced the needed flow of milk
however. is happily changing. The
calf is now a valuable consideration
for buyers are securing the country
for feeders and they pay good prices
where good beef bulls have been used.
The young feeding cattle formerly
came from specialist breeders and
comparatively small farmers, but We
now find that the great ranches are
competing in this market and sup
plying excellent grade feeders. II the
average farmer does not look out now
he will soon find his common store
cattle surpassed in quality and price
by these western grades. 1t therefore
behooves him to improve his stock
by breeding only to pedigreed bulls
and holding onto his grade heifera
Seven dollar beef in our opinion Is not
a chance boom" but one that We
are likely to see continue until the
shortage in cattle supplies changes to
an abundant supply or dull times les-
sen the activity and purchasing powers
of the nation. Once more we say
abandon the scrub bull and utilize only
the best in the breeding operations q
the farm. Where one breeder cannof
afford to own bull let him Join viii
the neighbors In its purchase and q
whole community viii share In u
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