The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-04-16
Raising Cattle for Butter and Beef.

verSlty, IN an article IN the Breed
ers' Gazette, touches on various
topics interesting to those Southern
farmers engaged in an effort to raise
beef at a profit The substance of
this article is here given:
Fifteen years of experience have
enabled Mr.. Byron F. Hawley of
Champaign county, o., to realize the
increasing difficulty of securing pro-
ftable feeders of uniform quality on
the open market or in the surround
ing country. Hence for the past five
years he has been building up pure
bred herd of Shorthorn COWS, partly
by breeding and partly by purchase,
until there are now seventy-fve head
of females. There is not one of them
but can perform at both the pail
and on the block. Their broad, deep
symmetrical frames and well-propor-
toned udders bear ample testimony
to this.
Beef from dairy communities has
attracted the opprobrium of the
packinghouse buyers for long time,
because it is not only inferior in
quality and of low value, but it is
produced at too great relative
cost Beef breeds have been develop
ed for 200 years to produce, first
beef, and second, milk. In a beef
herd we want the maximum of beef
and as much as IS practicable OF
milk. NIotherly-looking COWS are
wanted, not too compact in form.
Coarse steery-headed females are sell
dom successful breeders. They may
raise calves each year, but they are
not likely to be of the desirable type
and quality that are expected as the
progeny of the high-class sire that
should head every herd.
Mr. Hawley's plan is to employ two
pure-bred Aberdeen-Angus bulls for
crossing on his Shorthorn COWS. A
son of Star of the North has done
excellent service for the past two
years, as is proved by the fact that
at the age of three months the last
crop of calves might have been dis
posed of at $35 a head. The majorl-
ty of the calves are black, although
there are a few blue-grays among
them: All are of the thick feshy
lusty well-bred kind, possessing the
natural tendency to fatten. Such
cattle do not require to sell at
premium over old steers to make
good profit, provided judgment has
been exercised in their management.
They must, however, be fed so as to
insure continuous growth as we'll as
fattening, otherwise the heavy out
lay of feed necessary to make finished
beef at eighteen and twenty months
of age may exceed the income.
The Hawley calves are dropped be-
tween March and June and run with
their mothers at pasture until NOV
ember, when they are weaned. Dur
ing October creeps are erected in the
pasture near the movable feed-bunks,
and there the calves are fed mix
ture of corn and oats in equal parts.
In this way the setback experienced
bv the calves when the milk is discon-
tinued is minimized. The calves are
afterward fed in covered lot on
ration of shelled corn, cottonseed
meal, corn silage and alfalfa hay.
Toward the end of May they are
marketed.
Peacefully grazing at some little
distance from the farm buildings we
found a select group of Shorthorn
females with calves at foot. This is
the germ of the herd, from which
the owner is maintaining the female
stock of his commercial herd In a
spacious well-fenced lot near the
barn one sees yearling Shorthorn
bull. like the COWS bred in the pur-
pie and of high individual excellence.
In still another pasture there are fve
pure-bred Aberdeen-Angus COWS. BY
breeding these COWS to the high-class
sire kept for crossing with the short
horn COWS the owner hopes to raise
the Aberdeen-Angus bulls to be even
tually used on his commercial COWS.
Here is farmer who by intuition
and foresight has made it profitable
to raise the proper kind of calves
for baby beef on high-prlced lano'
and at the same time to MAINTAIN
the paternal and maternal sides OF