The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1914-09-03

| FOR help. TO harrsw Hour dr. costs
|. fifty cents An acre. 10 plant once,
thirty cents an acre. Thee seed costs
fifty cents an acre ct g . bushel for
seed, IL you don't raise your own seed.
Cultivating three times cost $1.O5,
and the cutting and the Irvine costs
leighty-five cents m acre. Then there
is $3.50 interest on the acre Of land;
and twenty-five cents in taxes, and five
cents interest on the value of the
equipment, and find that the acre of
corn costs me, raised and cut down,
laying on the ground, IS m acre. Now
/ to fill my silo use i've teAms-I fill
the silos on rainy days IN threshing
time. You know when We are shock
threshing and there comes . rain il
lis two or three days before We can
thresh. Then Is when All the silo.
II figure IS Q day for man and team
At this time Of year. It takes five
other men, two men in the silo to
tramp down the silage, one extra man
to help pitch the ensilage into the en-
silaRe cutter, one man to operate the
machine, and one man in the field to
help load. Say five men ut g day
paid $3.50 a day last year-and board
fifty cents, making SIS day for the
men. / paid the engineer IS . day,
and it takes IS for kerosene oil to run
the engine. Interest on the money in
vested in engine and ensilage cutter,
81 day. l add that in, and ! find it
costs me to cut the ensilage day,
$500. found we cut eighteen acres
la day, so one acre would cost one
eighteenth of that, or little less than
So an acre to cut it. 1t cost % IN acre
to raise the corn, consequently m acre
of corn in the silo costs 81, and it
yielded last year six ton to the acre;
consequently q ton Of silage costs
$1.SO in the silo, paying 2 per cent in
terest on the value of the land ut $50
per acre and the taxes. figured that
l$2 . ton in computing the value Of
the ration feed the cattle. BY the
same analysis I find out my ground
feed put in the ration cost me $13 q
ton. Last year the yield Of corn was
thirty-five bushels to the acre, and it
cost me in the crib thirty cents for q
bushel of seventy pounds. We ground
that up-we took SO per cent of the
corn, cob and all, and thirty per cent
of barley, ten per cent of oats and ten
per cent of pigeon grass seed-which
we used to haul to the elevator, pay
freight on to Minneapolis and give to
the fellows down there to feed sheep
on. Taking it out with the threshing
machine we had last year about 800
bushel from $4,000 bushels Of wheat.
Now this is the ration that we are go
ing to feed to baby beef cattle. It
costs s13 ton, paying Z per cent in
terest on $50 an acre for the land we
raised it on. Now l told you when at
Fargo that was feeding a bunch Of
steers with that ration. Since then
have sold the steers and they averaged
me about $1,000 apiece. The oldest
steer was twenty months old and the
youngest fourteen. They cost me
around $50 to raise, paying per
cent on the $50 an acre for the land,
raising all the feed, paying "a per
| head per year for care and $3.50 a
head for barn room. /, find by this
analysis that it cost me around $50
| head to raise those steers; that it
cost me s21 year to keep COW to
raise calf. am not in the dairy
business. I went into beef cattle be-
cause must depend wholly for help
on the help that an able to hira
IL COSt HE @NA . year w HolHboHA VIZ
cow, paying 2 per cent interest on
$50 an acre for the land to raise sill
age, alfalfa and pastures on, and -
for care. Years ago I used to keep
cows because they gave milk and
raised calves. discontinued the milk
ing. Now l breed heifer when she
is from IS to 20 months old; again
when she is thirty months old and
again when she is about forty months
old and again when she is fifty months
old, and at that time, or when the
COW is five or six years old or when
she has attained her whole growth, l
put her into. the feeding lot and finish
her as I don't believe in keeping any
thing on the farm in the shape Of beef
cattle longer than when they have at
tanned their full growth, unless It
might be a pure-bred animal. No.
Throw her into the feed lot and put
one Of her heifers little bit better
bred in her place in the herd. The
trouble with us American people is we
change too often. have neighbor
who some years ago, when potatoes
were sixty cents a bushel, plunged
into potatoes as fast as he could and
planted thirty acres the first year.
i The next fall they were worth thirty
cents. think he dug most of them.
Then he said, II am not going to raise
any more potatoes" But in year OF
two potatoes were high again and he
put in thirty or forty acres again and
that fall they were worth quarter q
tbushel and he didn't bother to dig
them. That is the way lot of PEG
4 pie will 60 into cattle. When you see
a man starting to engage in the cat
4 tie business, don't advise him to mort
gage his farm and mortgage every.
thing as collateral to buy feeders.
don't believe they are going to &c
i down, but don't want you or anyone
4 else on my advice to put yourselves in
an embarrassing position financially
III don't believe that is the way to gel
into the business. believe the way
to do is to take what money you car
!; afford to use and invest in good, high.
, grade heifers and raise your sowr
{, feeders from these grade heifers. Dis
pose Of the heifers when full-grown
placing q better bred heifer in hel
place in the herd, and in that way con.
tinue building up your herd Of cattle
"A friend Of mine went over Il
a France this winter after a load O1