Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1904-10-18
Changes In Feeding For Beef.
CHEAP RANGE AND CHEAP CORN THINGS
OF PAsT-ALFALFA TO THE RESCUE.

| During recent years there has been =
very great change in the feedingsof cat
tie for beef making, both in the limits
of the territory in which feeding is be-
ing done aud in the forage given to cat
tie that are to be sold for beef. The
whole is at the present time in a trans
ition state, and just what the final sys-
TEN will be it is at the present time
difficult to say. These changes have
been occasioned by the changes in price
of feeding material and the quantity
available. Feeders are now so much at
sea regarding the best plans to follow
that numerous experiment stations are
carrying on experiments to determine
the profits or losses Of certain practices.
A few years ago we had cheap range
in the far west and cheap corn in the
middle west. Calves were born on the
great plains and driven or hauled east
for some hundred of miles into the area
of cheap corn, to be finished for market.
1t was cheaper to transport the cattle
than the corn. There seemed at that
time almost no end to the number of
cattle that could be grown on the grassy
plains, and no end to the corn that could
ranchers built establishments that were
almost permanent in character, and the
feeders of cattle settled down to the
feeding of cattle in the corn belt as
life work.
But few years ago the price of corn
began to go up, and for some years it
has stayed up. In some localities the
feeders have paid as high as so cents
bushel for corn to finish steers, and each
bushel of corn makes only six pounds of
beef at the most. The cost of each
pound of grain was thus in excess of
eight cents, and no butcher or packer
would pay eight cents pound for the
beef when marketed. One Kansas
rancher who was two years ago trying
to fatten three thousand head Of steers
on his ranch, instead of sending them
into the corn belt, told me that he was
paying 60 cents bushel for corn, or
about 10 cents for every pound OF gain
he was putting on. Yet he had to do it
to sell the grass that he had put into
his cattle in their development.
This condition of things has made the
cattle feeder turn about and demand
cheaper animal of the producing ranch
er. The latter has replied that the
ranches are already overstocked, and
that the number of feeding cattle can
not be increased, and that therefore he
sees no reason for selling his cattle for
less than he has been selling them for;
the more so as he has to pay more for
all things purchased and for labor than
he did few years ago. The Eastern
feeder says that he cannot buy the cattle
unless he can make profit on them, and
the rancher replies that he will keep
them himself and finish them on cotton
seed meal and alfalfa. SO to-day great
herds of ranch cattle may be seen in the
West feeding in summer on the pastures
and in the winter in yards, where they
are supplied with alfalfa hay and cotton
seed meal. The result has been a very
great stimulation in the growing OF
alfalfa. This year some of the ranches
are paying fancy prices for that kind OF
hay, and larger area is being prepared
for the growing of alfalfa. One rancher
predicts that in few years the price OF
alfalfa hay will be less than half Of what
it is to-day.
Cattle are still being fed in the Middle
West, but the arrangement is no longer
regarded as the settled system to be fol-
lowed. A good many farmers in the
Middle West are raising their own calves,
growing them into beeves and finishing
them for market, while in the West
large number of men who, have been
producing feeders to sell to others are
finishing their own product.-Cor. in
Tribune Farmer.