The border vidette., 1923-04-28
FEEDING STEERS IN SANTA CRUZ
COUNTY PAYS.

Santa Cruz Patagonian, by Lee
H. Gould, County Agent, will be
of interest to cattle raisers:
Southern Arizona, especially
Santa Cruz county, is not suited
to feeding CATTLE" says the aver
age cattleman. We. are too far
from a market and the price of
grain is too high for cattle feed
ing to pay"
No doubt this is true in SO far
as it applies to the feeding of
cattle with the idea of giving
them the finish one might see in
the corn belt. But it is not true
if the cattle man feeds with the
idea of using roughage that can
be grown and fed in the form of
ensilage.
The experience of Ferris Bros.
of the Rain Valley community,
in the east end of Santa Cruz
county, has demonstrated that
the common opinion relative to
the feeding of range steers in
southern Arizona is incorrect.
These men have marketed a
bunch of steers that were fed on
ensilage, Sudan grass hay, ma
tive wild hay, hegari stoyer and
a small amount of corn on the
cob, hegari in the head and katir
in the head. Most of this feed
was grown on the Ferris ranch
and all of it was grown in the
immediate community. The feed
grown on the ranch was fed
first. After this had been con-
sumed it was necessary to buy a
little. feed in order to carry the
steers until the local butcher
could take them.
The bunch Of cattle consisted
of II 3 year old steers, 18 long
yearlings and 3 old COWS that
were no longer suita BILE for
breeding purposes. The three's
weighed 755 pounds each and
were bought at 5 cents a pound,
or a total of $3.50 each; the
yearlings were estimated at 400
pounds to the head and were
bought for $17 a head; the old
cows were put in at $40 head
These cattle were bought about
the middle of October and allow
ed to run in the fields until the
18th of December, when they
were put into a small feed lot
and put on ration of eusilage
and Sudan grass hay. After the
ensilage and Sudan grass hay
available had been fed, a ration
consisting of wild hay, hegari
stover, hegari in the head, kafir
in the head and corn on the cob
was fed, with the idea of hold
ing the weight that had been
gained until they could be dis
posed Of
The three old COWS and two of
the yearlings were sold on Jan
uary 90, the COWS at $25 each
and the yearlings at $29 each.
! The remaining 33 head were sold
to the local butcher at Tomb
stone for z cents pound, live
weight. A part of the. bunch
left the feed yard March 3 and
the remainder were taken out of
the feed yard March 18. The
three's averaged 1914 pounds to
the head and the long yearlings
averaged 6O4 pounds to the head
| the total sales values amounting
to 1,873.9O.
This bunch of cattle consumed
40 tons of ensilage, valued at S.
ton; 10 tons of Sudan grass
hay, valued at $40 a ton; 5 tons
of hegari fodder, the actual cost
of which was $37; tons of wild
hay, valued at So ton; 3O58
pounds of ear corn, the actual
value of which was $61.16; ton
of kafir heads, the cost of which
was $40, and 395 pounds of he.
gari heads at $40 ton, or So. 90.
The total sales on this bunch
of cattle amounted to 81 1873 90;
the original cost of the cattle
was 77.7O, and the value of the
feeds consumed was $491. O6.
After deducting the original cost
cf the cattle and the value of the
feeds consumed, there is a bal
ance of $4O5. IA, which is very
nice profit on the small bunch of
cattle fed.