The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1916-01-27
students when the animals were

students when the animals were
weighed. The steers were weighed
each Tuesday and when the expected
gain did not materialize at the scale,
it was looked upon as reflection on
the feeding skill of the boys in charge
for the previous week.
In an experiment like this it would
be unreasonable to look for profits.
The object was not to see how much
money we could make, but the idea
was to make it more or less of
practicum by which the students in
Animal husbandry could get first-hand
practical knowledge and experience in
feeding. In other words it was
means of showing them that feeding
steers at $50 A. M. with the Their
mometer at 20 to 80 degrees below
zero was different proposition from
feeding them rations on paper in
coy comfortable class room.
Besides this the five steers gave us
material to work with for stock judg-
ing. The influence of temperament
on the feeding qualities of a steer GER
talnly was impressed upon our minds
in this experiment. When it came to
handling the steers for weighing,
judging, watering, etc., there was one
steer, eric the Red" that the boys
always tried to avoid. This steer
clicked like a mule" and several times
on weighing days, he broke loose af-
ter dragging one or two of the "cow-
boys" who happened to be unfortunate
enough to have to lead him, through
few drifts about town. In fact this
Red steer had made himself so I'M
popular with the boys that in order to
save their regulations, we had to stop
calling him pet names and agreed to
call him eric the Red"
In the final reckoning this steer wa
found to have gained but five pounds
over the buying weight, while Lanky,
the most undesirable individual of the
five, according to the score card, was
the second largest gamer.
We paid six ten for our steers, and
sold them for seven. Taking out the
original value, the cost of feed and
a few other incidentals, we were hap
py to be able to say that we still had
a balance of 1884, and an inven-
tory showing two sacks of oil-meal
and lot of empty sacks, which are
returnable. We figured that the value
of the manure would offset the labor.
The barn used was loaned US through
the kindnes of local man.
We think the financial result is es-
pecially remarkable, because of the
many unfavorable conditions with
which we had to contend. In the first
place few successful feeders attempt
to make a profit without having hogs
to follow the steers. An undesirable
feature of our feeding lot was that
during stormy weather we had to
choose between exposing our stock, or
tying them like dairy cows in the
dark, unventilated horse stalls. In this
condition they often remained for two
or three days at time, when they
would become restless, and invariably
register loss at the following weigh
ing. Duties at the school-building pre-
vented our giving the attention they
should have had, such as exercise in
the yard for short periods even in
bad weather.
The animals were sold to the "Cor-
ner Meat Market" where the meat is
now on sale. The steers were pro-
nounced the best that were ever OBJ
tanned locally. If the right kind OF
feeding will produce good beef, these
carcasses ought to be the best since
they were produced on a ration of
ground barley, ground oats, oil-meal,
clover hay and bundle corn.
For the future we are planning to
pick up and finish some more ami
mas, butcher one or two of them and
sell the meat. This will give the boys
practice in butcherng and make them
familiar with the different market
cuts of meat and their value.-Con-
trihuted