The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1910-12-15
Feeding Beef Cattle.


cattle is to secure fertilizer for the
farm at "a minimum cost and to per-
manently increase the fertility of the
soil and improve it's physical condi-
tions which cannot be done with COM
mercial fertilizers. At the same time
these cattle furnish profitable mark
ct for cheap rough forage which
would otherwise have little value. Z
By exchanging cotton seed for meal
and selling only the lint and oil
which contain no fertility, the framer
is enabled to return to the soil all
the fertility taken from it and thus
maintain it's fertility and productive
ness. On visiting the farmers who
are feeding cattle this winter we
find with many of them this is an
entirely new industry and that some
serious mistakes have been made;
The cattle were nearly all bought
in Tennessee and North Carolina.
The buyers in many cases taking the
weights of the dealers without see
ing the cattle weighed and in many
cases the cattle were weighed full of
water and feed, and as consequence
suffered an excessively heavy shrink
age in weight in transit. The preven-
ton of this unnecessary loss would in
many instances mean fair profit
in feeding. In buying cattle that
have not been driven long distance
it is customary to weigh them after
having been kept in dry lot without
feed or water for IL hours, or de-
duct three per cent. from the weights.
Many farmers contracted for cattle
of definite weights without sufficient
regard for quality or condition and
obtained animals of poor breeding
and undesirable conformation and too
thin to finish in the time they desire
to feed them. While it is desirable
to buy heavy cattle when feeding
cotton seed meal, quality and con-
dition are of more Importance, as
they are the chief factors in de-
termining the price of fat cattle. Cat
tie for feeding should be of the broad,
smooth back, blocky type and carry
sufficient flesh to finish well on cotton
seed meal in about 100 days, making
a gain of about tive pounds per day.
The writer also noticed that many
farmers had purchased discolored and
damaged cotton seed meal, made
largely from heated seed. This meal
is totally unfit for feeding purposes
and is likely to cause serious injury
to the cattle and loss to the owner.
It is most unfortunate that some
manufacturers are selling damaged
meal for feeding purposes, as it is not
only a violation of the State Pure
Food Law, but is one Of the surest
ways of destroying an industry that
they should be as much interested
as the farmers in developing.
In many cases the farmers are
housing the cattle in stables that are
too small and poorly ventilated. The
ideal way of handling cattle in the
sandy land sections of the State is to
feed outside in the fields where the
fertilizer is required, fencing five to
ten acres at time and moving the
feed troughs Frequently.
Any buildings provided for beef
cattle in this State should be merely
to keep them dry and not to keep
them warm Eeach steer will require
about 35 square feet of space in the
stable and two feet of trough room.
1t is important that the stable be
kept we'll bedded with straw, corn
stover or other roughage at all times
to make the cattle comfortable and
absorb the urine which contains prac-
tically all of the nitrogen excreted,
and is the most valuable part of the
fertilizer. Cattle that are kept in
filthy stables or yards where they can
not rest comfortably will not increase
in flesh and do we'll no matter how
we'll they are fed.
Some farmers have made the mis-
take of feeding too much cotton seed
meal at the beginning and getting
their cattle off feed. 1t is never ad-