Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1901-08-01

The farmer who raises and fattens
mature steers has To furnish pasture
for his cows, the yearlings, tbs 2-year-
old and often for the 3-yearold steers,
SAYS II. NJ Cottrell of the Kansas eK-
pertinent station. He waits three years
from the time n calf is born until he
realizes on the investment, and only
one-fourth of his herd are cows produc-
ing calves If the farmer will produce
baby beef" he can fill his pasture to
the full limit with cows producing
calves. and he Will realize on the calves
10 months from the date of their birth.
The farmers gain will produce from 30
to 100 per cent more pounds Of baby
beef than it will of beef from a ma
ture steer, and for the past three years
the "baby beef" animal has sold for as
high prices per hundred as has the
average steer.
In producing "baby beef" the farmer
can market his heifer calves at the
same price as his steers and will usual
ly get more for the 12-month-old heifer
than ne would for the same animal If
kept until maturity.
Experiments made at the Kansas ex-
pertinent station show that the scrub
cows may be bought at ordinary prices
and If selected with dairy forms will
produce from $50 to S75 worth of milk
per year per COW at creamery prices.
Our calves fed creamery Skimmilk un-
til weaving made the greatest gains In
the feeding lots and sold at $40 to $45
per head This shows that n gross In
come of from 800 to $120 per cow can
be made by the dairyman who will
push both COW and calf.
The farmer who produces "baby
beef should raise alfalfa and feed al
falfa hay to both COW and calf every
day in the year. COwpea, soy bean,
field pea and red clover hays may be
used to give variety, and this means
that the farmer will grow leguminous
crops largely, and these will continual
ly improve his fields.
The calves used in this experiment
were common" bred ones, and they
made good gains. The farmer whose
business is producing baby beef"
should use the best type of bull that he
can secure-short legged, thick meated,
blocky and quick maturing. A few
farmers who are doing this are pro-
ducing year old calves that average
1000 pounds each. This means $50
and upward per head for every steer
and heifer.
Steers Fattened ON Alfalfa
An Oregon stock raiser gives his eX-
perience In Breeders Gazette of fatten-
ing steers on alfalfa hay alone. He
says: began feeding so head Of steers
the average being 917 pounds. In feed
ing | always make 1t practice to keep
salt in the troughs. This year 1 used a
condition powder, mixing eight pounds
of it to 100 pounds of salt. | sold and
weighed the 80 steers Feb. %, their
average weight being 1,240 pounds,
making q net gain of 323 pounds,
which is a third more gain than in
previous years.
Ration For Steers.
The amount of alfalfa hay in addition
| to maintenance required for pound OF
gain will depend ON the amount fed or
the quantity that the animal will eat
and assimilate over and above that re-
quired for maintenance, says Luther
Foster of the Wyoming experiment sta
ton. Alfalfa alone does not make a
| we'll balanced ration for growing steers.
1t has too much digestible protein in
proportion to the other nutrients. For
best results it should be fed with some
concentrate, such as corn, very rich In
| nitrogen free extract.