Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-07-16
THE NEED OF BEEF

lHc IdI LID tdSL VI lAC INV
is the most vital problem facing til
~ live stock industry today, and on
N which must be :emedied by create
=. effort toward replelishment OF tn
'e prosperity OF the landowner is to b
continued, and, too, If the beef catin
public is to secure its regular quot
3, at prices below prohibitiye levels.
i, The nation has in recent year
drawn too heavily upon the sourc
C OF fat beef output, without due regar
e TO the future OF the supply. Farmer
= fofy the corn belt have been prone II
: look to the west and southwest TO
n their supplies of feeding cattle, MO
realizing that the increasing popula
! ton is constantly calling for create
home production of fat beeves.
Time mas arrived WHEN the west, ;
few years back the breeding grount
for the corn-belt feeders, is no longer
able to supply feeding cattle to the
farmers of Missouri, Iowa. Illinois, In
diana and Ohio, except at almost fat
steer prices. The situation is grow
ing more acute each year, a1d within
the past twelve months the effect OF
! decreasing home production nf beef
/ steers in the states of the middle
west has been a relatively shorter
; supply of beef than cOnsumptive ca
pacity required, and results have been
! higher ave rage prices for fat steers
, than realized in thirty years past.
But instead of general prosperity, it
has been prosperity for the few, be-
cause cattle raising and feeding has
declined.
There must be greater effort to-
ward home production OF beef steers
east OF the Missouri river. The west
and southwest can no longer be called
upon to furnish the former quota of
feeder cattle to be finished by the
corn.belt farmers. There is within
radius OF 500 miles east, west and
south OF Chicago an area equal to
100000 farms OF eighty acres each,
VI on which could be produced profit
ably an average of two or more COWS
each year, at a cost which would be
low enough to afford reasonable In.
come on the Investment. These few
extra COWS would aggregate an In
creased yearly production OF over
100000 cattle.
Where is the farmer who owns an
eighty.acre tract, who. by practising
4 little economy, could not raise at
least two head of beef cattle more
each year for practically the same
cost Of the present output?
One good bovine matron with calf
at foot, feeding the latter until the
calf stage is passed, when the animal
could be fed grain ration, would
within fifteen months produce added
wealth CT $50 to s75, and net the
farmer = handsome financial return,
even upon $50 land.
Two million eighty-acre farms, each
producing two or more head Of beef
cattle, would within four years in
crease the beef Ou1Hut OF the middle
western states to normal volume
again and care for the needs OF the
fast-growiag population
Unless the owners Of thes,' farms
are brought to see their errors in
drawing away from home production
of beef cattle by continued defend |
encc upon the west and southwest !!
as breeding ground. the values Of !
farm land will shrink in the next !,
half decade to point which sill !
mean l. to % per cent less wealth !!
to them represented in farms. "Why?" (
the farmer may inquire Here is the /
reason:
The very foundation of agricultural !
wealth is corn and cattle, and the
economy of farming demands that IS
to. 80 per cent of the corn crop be
fed to cattle and hogs. In the last
year this proportion of the crops has
not been dis! osed of in such manner.
Corn was considered by many cattle
men too high in price to feed, and
the result is that they have fed less
of it. Due to this is now a greater
stock of old corn on hand than in the
past decade. Nearly every country .
elevator holds a big quantity of it,
end the cribs, too, are comfortably
stocked while, as the new crop IS
being planted, there is every pros
pect for as great, and even greater,
yield next fall than was had last
year.
The corn trade is predicting lower
i