Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1904-08-01
WESTERN RANCHES AND HOW
THE STRIKE AFFECTS THEM.
LARGE ONES NOT HURT
Producers in Kansas and Nebraska
to Bear the Brunt If the Trouble
Lasts-LiVe Stock a Costly Article
to Maintain After 1t Is Ready for
the Market.

in Kansas, passed through here recent
ly on his way east. In speaking oil
the great struggle between the
packers and the strikers Mr.. Forsha
said: "The packer, the striking EN-
plOyes and the long-suffering con.
sumner may have their troubles, but
there are all passive compared with
those of the producer who sees his
herds ready for market without a
his cattle literally eating up all the
profits that their ultimate sale may
realize.
1.-The difficulty to the ranchman is
two-foid. On the one hand his market
able stock will eat their heads off
during the strike; and on the other
the market, when it is restored, will
be so glutted that stock shipped i'm
mediately will fall short of realizing
what it would under normal condI-
tiOns.
1.-The cattle feeders of Kansas and
Nebraska will be the principal sur
ferers. To the large ranchmen of
Texas and New Mexico the loss will
be slight. There all the cattle are
CRASHED anyway, and grass is as free
as air. and a great deal freer than
water, so that it makes little differ
ence in the final profits how long a
steer feeds before he is shipped. But
on the small feeding ranches, every
day a steer is held after he reaches
his. maximum weight means a dead
loss. To let him drop back in weight
means to lose everything that has
been gained before, while to keep him
at the high point means TO feed him
heavily on high-priced grain without
the prospect of any return.
"The other sufferers from the
strike have other resources, but the
cattle feeder has none. The packers
have other interests, or may have
bank accounts; the Strikers have re-
lief funds, and the consumers may
turn vegetarians. But with the pro
Queer, when his cattle fail of profits
everything has failed"
1t is from the feeding ranches or
Kansas and Nebraska and other
central states that the packing-houses
of the middle west draw their sup
plies. The big ranches do not as a
rule furnish cattle suitable for the
packers use. The range cattle come
to the packer ultimately to be sure,
but 1t is after they have undergone a
year or so feeding at the small
ranches, whose very existence has
been threatened in this strike.
In Kansas and Nebraska the small
ranchmen have driven out almost
completely the cattle king of twenty
years ago.
The Forsha ranch in Reno county
is a type of the ranch that has con-
quered the cowboy. The cowboy Iona
ago disappeared from Kansas and
Nebraska He and barbed wire can.
not exist together. One or the other
had to go-and it was the cowboy.
Forsha's ranch has a capacity fOl
feeding and caring for 1000 head of
cattle. and is nearly always run to
its full capacity. The owner. Sam W
FOrsha, buys young stock from Kan
sas City and from the surrounding
country and ships it to his ranch OF
5000 acres in the heart of the Kan.
sas corn belt, where it is put in
pasture for six months with libera
feelings of alfalfa hay night and
morning. One thousand acres of the
ranch is devoted to growing alfalfa.
After six months of feeding on
alfalfa the cattle are ready for grain.
Corn is.suppose1 to be the finest cattle
fattener. but Mr.. Forsha has learned
that a mixture of corn and wheat gets
better and quicker results.
No grain is fed to the cattle before
it has been ground. A mill on the
ranch is kept running night and day
making chop and shorts to fill the
! fOur-horse wagons which morning and
evening drive TO the troughs, nearly
mile in length, where the cattle
await their meal. The corn in the
feed makes fat, the wheat makes
meat, and the quality of beef desired
! is regulated by the food given. If it
is discovered that the cattle are TAX
ing on fat too rapidly the amount of
corn is decreased and the wheat In
creased.
All the food is weighed before il
leaves the mill, and Mr. Forsha can
tell to the pound just how much corn
and wheat have gone into the steer
between the time he comes to the
ranch and the time he leaves it.
Finally, as 3-year-old, the steer is
ready for the market. He came to
the ranch lean. scrawny and shaggy.
He leaves it round, trim and silken
coated. and sells for just twice as
much as his brother who remained on
the range.
Ten years ago the cattle country of
the United States lay between the
| Wichita mountains of southern Okla
4. nrrlF ~F