Belt Valley times. [volume] (Armington, Mont.) 1894-1977, 1923-09-13

2 o Wn1cn q a surplus of feed
, above their own needs. Such states
have found that during recent year
their hay and grain could be market
ed to better advantage through the
fattening of live stock than through
shipping hay.
The f~attening of cattle should not
be looked on as a get-rich-quick plan
but rather as a method of marketing
some OF the surplus feed which is
produced on the ranch. No one is In
as safe a place to feed as the man
who Is producing both the feed and
the stock. Where n buys either the
feed or the stock, or both. 1t becomes
more OF a speculation than where
both cattle and feed are produced by
n Where both are produced
by the same person, the cattle will
usually market the feed at a fair
price and anything received above
this can be considered profit on the
feeding operation.
The kind of cattle to feed Is i'm
portant, but where one buys his feed
ers IL is ever more important to
buy them right, for an animal that
is well bought is half sold" The
AdCal tyPc VI tccucl lcsdIuitbS Oh X |
or breed has a big, broad muzzle. a
short broad face, short neck, large
spring of rib, wide deep 1oin, wide
rump, deep hind quarters, deep
TANKS, and short legs set wide apart.
The small-muzzled, long faced, slab
sided, weak Joined, narrow-rumped,
cat-hamed, shallow-bodied, long-leg-
ged kind seldom make good use of
their feed although sometimes they
are more profitable than the better
feeders because at the markets they
can often be purchased cheaply.
Where they are purchased direct
from the owner they often prove I'M
profitable because he thinks they are
as good as any other cattle and ought {
to bring as much money, and will
not sell them for the comparatively {
price that they are really worth.
Here In Montana we have all ages !
Of cattle that can be fed. The one
hat is most commonly spoken of by
men who want to feed but have :
fed before is baby beef" The \
.attening of any kind of cattle is as n
a specialized business as run |;
ling cattle on the range and of all I.
.'attening operations the feeding of 2
beef is the most difficult and h
most highly specialized. n is true
these little cattle will make their ii
aims more economically than older a
attic but they also need more grain X
n proportion to the hay they use, h
which is not desirable on many of n
iur ranches; they must be fed over W
longer period OF time; and they n
re more liable to go off feed unless a,
kilfully fed than are yearlings or n,
wo-year-olds. For these reasons any
ne who has never fattened cattle be- ID
ore will probably do much better ID
.attening yearlings or tw~o-year-olds, M
referably the latter. In this con- &
ection the statement of an exper- =,
range mar might be worth re- ot
When asked why he did not ar
IKE some OF his thin cattle east and bf
them himself, he said: 81 tried ar
hat once thinking that n man who
cattle as we'll as / did would
nd 1t an easy job, but l found that 40
was just as much a highly special q,
profession as running cattleLon Is
lie range and that I was as much mr.
ut OF place In the feed lot as those Iv
Professional feeders would have been
my ranges. / am willing to leave =
10 fattening of cattle in the feed
t to those who know the game.
ave all / car do to tend to my
title on the range without learning
new game"