Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-10-17
WHY BEEF Is HIGH.

L
the beef cattle industry in the west
has decreased at an alarming rate. &C
cordine to Prof. w. J. Kennedy OF the
extension department OF the iowa a
state college, who has just retuIheu
from an extended tour OF the western
states. Prof. Kennedy declares that III
the eight states he visited tnere mas
been = decrease of from 40 TO oo per
cent in the beef raising industry III
the last seven years. This decrease IS
most marked, he says, In the state OF
wyoming, where the percentage Oh
beef cattle raised is not more than 10
ner cent of what it was seven years
ago. He mentions the fact that three
large ranches which seven years ago
kept 25O,O0O head of beef cattle have
turned over to sheep raising and farm-
ing. Giving the reasons for tnis
change and the lesson Iowa should
draw from it, Prof Kennedy says:
"The reasons for this great decrease
n this line of agriculture are largely
explainable by an increase IN some OIL
fhe other divisions of that great
science. Wyoming, in particular. mas
taken. very largely to raising sneep,
and some Of the other states | visited
follow very close upon her neels Ill
this change of faith
oSheep have been found to require
lass care than good beef cattle, and
+hav will grow and thrive on the near
~ .erhausted pastures which are too
f.r cone for cattle to live on. Dry
farnoine however, has encroached on
most Of the industry. thousands OIL
thousands Of acres, which formerly
have grown up to sage brush and tnlra
rate pasture for cattle, now are pelns
plowed up by means OF tractlon en-
zines and gang plows and utilized IN
this comparatively new method OF
"The result of this shortage of beef
cattle in the western states IS very ap-
narent. It points with unerring finger
r. the fact that has long been coming
before the people of this state: Iowa
farmers must become beef producers.
"There is a real shortage of beef IN
the limited States, accompanied by an
Increase in price which no one has
failed to notice, it being all too appar'
ont tn the consumer. In the last ten
years the population of the United
states has Increased more than 20 per
cant The beef cattle industry in the
limited States in that same length OF
fine has decreased somewhere BE-
tween 40 and 50 per cent
aIowa must put more land to grass !;
she must realize that the pasturing OF
beef is the all important thing, as the
ratio of people to food supply In
creases. Just as the British farmers
have recognized the fact and become,
on their densely populated islands, the
greatest beef producing and beef eat
in1 nation on the globe
more silos must be built in Iowa, as
the silo has become very important
factor In beef production, and their
distribution is oil too sparse in the
state of Iowa. More alfalfa must be
grown on Iowa SOIL Alfalfa has come
10 be recognized as the greatest ma
tura1 food for cattle, and undoubtedly
T. the economical grass food for feed
ing on a large scale.
"Beef cattle must be marketed at
an earlier age, 10 to "a months being
the proper age at which to sell, not
two and one-half or three years. as
most Iowa farmers are doing at the
present time. The change to beef cat
tie raising, when 1T comes, will bene-
FIT Iowa agriculturally, because it VIII
build up more permanent agriculture
and. even more important in the long
run. It will conserve the rapidly de-
creasinp soil fertility