Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1901-01-10
How a Prize Winner Feeds.

record d-breaking price Of 15H cents per lb.l
Beef production is a matter of
special interest and importance at
this time in the states of Indiana,
Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and
Nebraska and parts of other states
The. business is of special interest
just at this time because we are en-
tering period that will be known
as period of restoration of beef
production.
Try to produce only the best beef;
do not attempt to produce anything
short of it, especially on high-priced
lands. There is nothing particularly
difficult in the process of raising
market-topping beef. If to raise
very fine beef cattle involved difficult,
expensive processes, then the bust
ness would not pay.
Many years ago foresaw that l
was bound to get very tired of feed
such cattle as 1 could pick up about
the country of every shade of quail
ity. Each years work was too much
like the year just before it. Our
methods of feeding were the same
that had been followed from the be-
ginning of cattle feeding in Illinois.
We raised all the corn we could ev-
cry year, bought all the cattle we
could feed, started them with little
corn or corn and fodder, and then
gave them a little more corn and
fodder and little more until they
were on full feed; when fat we took
them to Chicago, threw them in with
tens of thousands of others of the
same kind, took the common price,
came home, did it over again. So l
began to breed cattle.
When 1 began to breed cattle, l
soon discovered l began to have
better cattle than those l could buy.
That was pleasant and interesting,
but 1 also soon discovered that cat
tie breeding would become monton-
Gus and uninteresting if one is not
trying year by year to breed better
and better cattle; and herein lies the
secret of all interest, all pleasure in
any kind of work. l began to breed
just as good cattle as l could; first
Shorthorns. About 'SS l had bred
up until 1 had herd of excellent
high. grade Shorthorn cows. But
cattle feeding became a very pre-
carious and often losing business.
Almost everybody let their beef cat
tie go. The business declined al
most to extinction because of the
enormous expansion of the cattle
business in the farther west on cheap
lands.
Along about 'S7 and 'S8 1 fire.
quently saw specimens of the Aber-
deem Angus cattle. They pleased
me, SO 1 began using good register
ed Aberdeen Angus bulls in my herd
of Shorthorn COWS. The result of
the Angus cross with the Shorthorn
was great. got the finest calves
that ever appeared on the farm.
The Angus steer differs from the
Shorthorn in this, that at from 28 to
80 months we can give him all the
characteristics of fully matured
beef with good heavy weight for
his age and yet he will not be too
heavy to bring the very highest price
in the market. The steer that will
bring the very highest price on the
Chicago market needs to weigh
about 1900 lbs, with neat, small,
elegant head and neck, straight
lines, well sprung ribs, thick back,
symmetrical in form, all resting on
short legs, and his hide should be
evenly filled out all over just as full
as it can hold of the very best beef.
The well-bred Angus steer, if prop
erly fed, feeds right into this partic-
ular high notch and if any other
breed of steer can get there as sure
ly and as quickly as the Angus, it
has yet to- be proved.
Before our calves are weaned, l
teach them to eat and get them to
eating well. What the calf shall
eat will vary according to circum-
stances of breeder and feeder. l
feed a ration of corn meal, ground
oats, bran and little oil meal; l do
not mean all of these at one time,
but always more than one at time,
and suitable roughage when not on
grass. / make sure that the calf has
good variety of food suitable for
his best growth and development.
How much give our calves l can
not exactly tell, but give as much as
they will take safely. Then when
calves are weaned there is no loss of
time nor flesh nor condition. l go
right on feeding these calves just as
though they were 2-year-old steers.
do not mean that we give them ex-