The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1904-07-15

| reaching the market at about thirt "
six months. The strong factor in the
| production Of these steers Is that they
! nave been grown on grass and coarse
| FOODS with a short finishing period.
Our Methods Of Feeding.
Must be studied High-priced land de-
mands high priced products unless you
can greatly increase the yield. Thirty
cent corn cannot be fed by the same
wasteful methods which we practced
when it was worth 10 cents. The
amount OF food necessary to produce
100 pounds of gain varies greatly under
/ different conditions. AS much as 81
per cent. OF the feed was saved when
soy-beanS are fed with corn to hogs
over feeding corn alone. In other in
stances IS per cent of the feed was
saved by feeding a balanced ration To
steers, over feeding corn ana corn
, SloVer. All this has been done In KAN
sas-Where people know how. 1t took
brains to find out. Then why not ball
hnce the ration? The great bugbcar has
! been the cost. Protein is high priced.
But the farmers of Kansas aud Ne
braska have grown the protein and now
1t is cheap. Alfalfa hay at s. per ton
1 makes protein so cheap that we have
no excuse for stinting the calf on blood
aud body bulGers. He takes it 100
much To heart. It does not pay.
rive tons of alfalfa hay VIII balance
NE ration for five tons of corn in max
Ing baby-beef. 1t will do more with
mature steers. With % per cent. Of
the farm land in alfalfa and soy beans
there VIII be no lack of protein to feed
dairy herd and raise baby eef The
work Of the Kansas experiment station
in bringing out the value Of the soy
bean mas been worth more to the far
mers Of the state than the Kansas
Agricultural college ever cost.
When grown the steer must be mar
keted. If he is fat and good beast
he Will top the market. But the mar
Ret may be bad. The feeder of baby
beef has an advantage. Baby beef may
be kept on for some months beyond
the Time we had expected to sell 1t
VIII continue to gain and nearly or
quite pay for the feed. In the mean
Tim" the market may mend and you
you do not have so much lecWay. They
get ripe and must go. The purchaser
of cattle for the feed lot must be Il
good buyer or he gets sold. The man
who raises cattle gets all the profits
and does not have the risk
Kansas ana Nebraska possess nat
ural advantages for feeding. They
have dry climate and genial skies.
y dry feed yard has I great advantage
over 4 yard knce-drep in mud, or Il
steaming filthy stable. A dry bed is
no fiction in the profits Of steer feeding.
The steer swells most when lying
down. He then puts fat on his ribs.
The man who grows baby beef must
be SlIillful lie is dealing with young
tender things; he reeds n sympathetic
knowledge of the animal, an intuition
as TO its needs.
The production OF baby beef is large
~ independent of the business of the
large feeder who buys mature cattle,
and will become more and more 50 as
the supply of range cattle decreases.
1t can be carried ON by the small far
mer who makes q practice of feeding
what he grows ana growing what he
feeds. Under this system the land
grows richer and its rent paying pow
er Increases with its increased pro-
ductlNcnesS. A home industry IS de-
Nelopcd upon Il sound economic basis.
The production of Il superior product
Is great incentive to develop a SUI
perior farmer. We know that baby
beer is the most economical from the
standpoint of per cent of beef produced
to food consumed. We know that it
possesses the highest quality With the
smaller per cent. of waste. 1t must,
therefore. be most economical. To
produce it, requires the greatest skill
1t must eventually pay the greatest
profit.