Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1906-03-10

make a good sire. He must be
well set on short legs, good length of
body with we'll sprung ribs, short
thick neck, well arched, a good deep
brisket, not Aabby, we'll filled behind
the shoulders, with good heart birth,
a broad back with straight lines from
the shoulders to the butt of the tall
broad and smoothly turned around the
pins, with not too coarse tail; the
ham we'll sprung with meat low down.
not only outwardly but inwardly; and
in order to get good feeder get an
animal with sufficient capacity covered
with good messy coat Of hair The
product of such a sire will invariably
be calves of good beef form.
have noticed in the large summer
fallows that abound in the Palouse
country great many cows sucking
their calves. That is a splendid way
to start beef steer, provided you do
not allow the calf to stay with its
dam at the straw stack during the
winter. The calf may possibly live
but when spring comes it will be so
badly stunted that it will never mature
into first class animal. The first
winter is the critical period in calf's
history and the farmer who sees that
his calves are kept comfortable with
plenty of good food during that period
can have. reasonable assurance that he
can make something good out of them
in the future.
Now about the dam; she does not
require to be pure bred animal like
the sire; grade COW, even a very
common one, crossed with such a bull
as I have described, will invariably
produce a calf Eof the beef type, for
we must remember the bull is the al
most all-important factor and the main
object before every one interested in
| beef raising is to encourage farmers to
us at the head of their herds, whether
it be sheep, cattle, swine or horses,
only pure bred sires. There is room
for tremendous improvement in this
direction and l trust the majority of
farmers will not always be blind to
what is certainly for their own best
interests.
In feeding a steer, it is not we'll to
urge the calf too much at first, as it
is very liable to sicken, and a calf at
that age is very easily killed by kind
ness, but it must have something more
than pasture. | refer to the period
when it would be about year old. A
small quantity of grain, crushed oats,
given twice a day will assist nature
in forming bone to carry its future
weight do not believe in rushing
animals too fast, but as your steer de-
velops and grows, you must increase
his ration, not necessarily a great
quantity of grain, but by adding roots
and ensilage he will grow very rapid
! ly, or in other words, you must grow
your steer preparatory to the fattening
process.
OF course, it requires diligence and
perseverance, not feeding one day and
missing the next, in order to get the
best results. Wheat, barley and oat
chops is a splendid ration with roots
and ensilage to fatten a steer. By
having a steer in proper condition the
time you want to make him weigh, you
can, with this ration, make him put
on three pounds day by giving him
good, comfortable quarters with plenty
of water and fresh air, combined
with plenty of grooming, for that also
is essential.
l am trying to impress on your
minds how to raise and feed a first
class steer, one which, when finished,
would find place in the best markets
in the United States At two and
half or three years of age steer
would weigh anywhere from 1900 to
1900 pounds, and some might do even
better than that. In comparison with
your summer fallow and straw stack
steer, he could not do it in less than
five or six years and in the majority
of cases never do it all.