The leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1895-1905, 1902-12-17
FARMER AND PLANTER,
THE FEEDING OUTLOOK.
A Problem that Depends Materially
ON Local Conditions and the
Market Prospect.


There is need of experimentation
in feeding corn to cattle on grass.
Two neighbors, Mr.. William Patrick
and Joseph Ware, each had bunch
of two-year-old steers. Mr.. Patrick
fed al5out 1000 bushels of corn to his
cattle on bluegrass pasture. Mr..
Ware fe3 nothing, but allowed his
cattle to rur on clover and bluegrass.
Mr.. Wares cattle made the grcitter
gain during the summer. Who has
additional experiences and facts on
this subject? Our intention has been
to take good range calves right from
their mothers, put them in the feed
lot ana keep the baby fat on thea
with alfalfa, silage and corn, turn
them ON alfalfa in the spring, and
feed corn on alfalfa, finishing them
for market by November or Decem-
Der, when about eighteen months i, III.
We believe in this plan, but it is yet
! improved. Now we are ready to put
the calves i'll the feed-lot, and ranches
arc holding them at what seem pro-
hibitive prices. And our last fails
calves are yet ON hand. They had no
corn last winter, and none this sum-
mer; they are getting it now, but
will not be fat for several months,
We find a surprising divergence of
views as to how many pigs should
| follow cattle fed ear or shock corn.
Some say put three 5o-pound pigs to
a steer. We find if we feed our cat
tie just what they want and eat up
clean there is not a great amount Of
undigested corn voided. Corn is not
very hard yet. We think one good
sheet to. the steer is enough. These
steers are eating a great many pump
llins, cutie a lot of alfalfa hay, and
nearly twenty pounds of corn daily.
| They have the run of small woods
| pasture.
There was never time when feed
| ers were more uncertain of the out
come. Prices of pork are altogether
{, G high. 1t is a real hardship to the
laboring man to have to pay for his
bacon from IS to 20 cents per pound.
Beef, it would seem, is higher than
it can possibly remain. Mutton alone
seems on a reasonable basis. All re-
| ports tell of immense numbers of
cattle going on feed. Is there really
to be more meat produced than will
be wanted? Ii looks that way to me.
| To one who travels through the cat
| tie and sheep country and sees the
| Cverstocked condition almost every
where, it seems as though we were on
the verge of a collapse. Yet our con-
sumers are il creasing perhaps faster
than the cattle, and after all the de-
terioration of many western ranges
and the drought in the southwest
have made more APPARENT the over-sup-
ply of stock than the real situation
would warrant. Lamb feeders have 4
happy faith that seems almost child
| like; the only limit to their tallingS
is the number sent in, and the only
limit to the numbers sent in is the
ability of the railways to carry them.
The ranges must reduce numbers, or
starvation will reduce them.
Nevertheless we have put into our
barns our usual 700 western lambs,
and while we feel that it may be a
good year to stay out yet, with all
arranged to feed and the feed piled
up, we think best to keep right on.
And with our system of feeding ear
corn and alfalfa hay we have re-
duced the cost of mutton-making to
the minimum. But there will be three
times the number of sheep and lambs
fed here that there was last year, and
many more cattle. Let us hope every
man in the United States and Great
Britain will have a good job, good
pay, and a hankering after meat for
years to come.-Joseph E. Wing, in
Breeders Gazette.