The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-08-30
CHARLES VIM. BURKErT.
FOUNDATIONS In BUILDING A BEEF HERD.
Address by A. L. French, Esq, r. F. D., Byrdvile,
Va, Before North Carolina Farmers Convention,
Raleigh, N. c., August 3, 1904.

Inc nrSt FOUNDATION l. Will mention is that OF
feed, as upon this one point rests the whole live
stock structure, an abundance of good, nutri-
tious food being absolutely necessary to the high
est development of all our breeds of stock. Corn
ensilage, clover and peavine hay, and cotton-seed
meal make a complete ration and perhaps as
good a one as can be compounded, and the beauty
of it is, every one of these crops can be produced
on our farms at low cost, and by careful saving of
all stable manure the land will steadily increase
in value and productiveness-so you see we make
a profit at both ends of the line on the increased
value of the farm and also on the animals fed if
mark this-if, I say, we feed the right sort of
animal, as on this point depends the profit or loss
of our feeding operation.
Their Gore let us look carefully to quality when
making selection of our breeding cattle. The Sc
lection of the females is important, as upon the
female form and size depends to a great extent
the form and scale of the produce. Good large
blocky scrub cow will do if you cannot secure
better. We prefer to pay a little more though
and secure animals with a few crosses of good
beef blood. Having the female question disposed
of, we come to the selection of the male which
is far more important than that of the female
portion of the herd, as in breeding to pure bred
females the sire is half the herd, while with
grade or scrub females he is very much more
than half because of the greater strength of the
pure blood, and nothing but a pure bred sire
should ever be used. He should be an animal
with character displayed in every line of his body
should have a broad short head, fine prominent
eye, mild, denoting kind disposition. The head
should be joined to the body by the shortest of
necks. He should stand squarely on short legs
set wide apart; should be broad on the back, and
should be extra heavy in hind quarter, especially
in the twist-that portion of the lower part of
hind quarter located on inside of leg; fully so
per cent of beef bulls lack in this particular. If
we can get the other points along with it, we pre-
fer to get a bull with a mellow well-haired hide.
as this denotes good feeding quality.
Now we have our breeding animals selected.
and plenty of winter feed grown for them, let us
give attention to our pastures. We can have in
North Carolina as good pastures as there are in
America if we will give the matter the attention
that should be given a subject of such Importance.
Consider the fact that our pastures should pro-
vide all the feed our animals consume for six
months or more of every year, and that, too,
without any expense for harvesting and feeding.
When the calves begin to arrive the herd should
be given close attention that none of the little
fellows should be lost when a little attention at
the critical time would bring them through ali
right. We prefer to have our calves run in pas
ture with their dams, as this is natures way. If
you need some milk to use in the family make all
the calves nurse half the COWS and milk the other
half. In this way you can grow much better
calves than by hand feeding on skim milk, and
with much less bother and expense. Before the
cattle go into winter quarters they should be well
dipped at least twice at intervals of ten days to
destroy lice, etc. 1t never pays to use good food
to feed lice in any quantity. Never let your calves