The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-01-19
Manager Of Big Farm Talks Of
Production Of Cattle for Market

v - s
/ three times week. The spring clave
are put in one shed and these are fee
literally with hay once a day abou
four quarts of ground feed and bran
! Calves do well on this feed. The lat
fall and winter claves are not weanet
in the fall but are left with their dam,
and are fed similarly, This year W.
have about seventy five calves.
In the spring all the stock is herdeC
in the fields till pastures are good
Our pastures are large and contain
about five acres. for each head which
assures plenty of grass. W. separate
the heifers, too young to be bred from
tn cows and put them In a separate
| pasture. The steers are also run In
! separate pastures. The common prac-
| tice of letting young heifers run with
| cows and bulls in one pasture results
| i'm their coming in calf at two young
an age and impares size in both them
selves and calves and should be con-
demned strongly We use matured
bulls that run with 80 CT WIS fir m July
l. to Sept. / and as soon as threshing
is finished all stock l. run together on
the fields and meadows and place j
nights i'm 1e-' pastures: OF course
the bulls are removed when the stock
is taken from the pastures I'm Septem-
Der. Our gains on grass alone from
June to October ! run from 225 pounds
to 300 pounds per head The older
1teers gaining the most. II might
be of interest to know that our colts
gain just about as much as the cattle
do on grass for similar ages. We fig
ure costs of raising grade cattle in this
way to average about 50 per head a
year. You see this follows closely usu-
al practices, unlc SIS it 1t tina. we may
feed little more literally Of hay and
sort the stock closer
Some Points on Feeding.
At this point allow me to digress and
give my reasons for this sort of hand
ling and for the marketing described
later on. 1t Is safe to say that there
is usually the best of reasons for fol-
lowing the usual practices. However,
methods i'm beef cattle raising i'm North
Dakota should vary with local con-
ditions. | sht~'l tell what appears best
to us and which we may continue. We
can afford to keep our steers till they
are at least three and one-half to four
yers old before marketing. and they
ought at this age weigh 1850 pounds
and over. This weight has been, grown
on cheapest sorts of feed and the prin-
cipal gains made on grass and has not
been obtained by expensive feeds and
handling charges that would come IL
the weight were made one year ear
Tier on heavier grain feeding. We firm
ly be lieve in the grain feeding of the
calves and the yearlings tina. are thin.
The additional bone growth and good
start secured the first winter will be
maintained | believe grain fed calves
carry matured weights more evenly.
After the first winter we belive that the
gains made from hay, straw and corn
fodder are so satisfactory and so
cheaply secured that we can afford
to feed in this manner two years
more and get the three summers cheap
grass gains. This gives us proper
weights at three and one-half to four
years of age. The same weights may
be obtained a year younger by con-
tinuous grain feeding We obtain the
weight more cheaply, and / do not
think they sell for less money nor lose
quality. / do not believe that it pays