Thursday, October 7. 1909.
THE PROGRESSIVE PARMER.
$500 Mdrea
XL. By Feeding Beef Cattle and Saving the Manure.
Bw Dr. Tait Butter.
EFORE THE feeding of beef
cattle is likely to be regard
ed by our farmers as gener
ally profitable, they must, revise
their views and ideas as to the true
aim and purpose of this phase of
live stock husbandry.
The beef steer is not an economi
cal producer of human food, but he
will eat grass and other coarse farm
products, which some other animals
will not consume, and convert them
into human food. A part, or the
full value, of -many of these pro
ducts are now wasted by us, and if
the beef steer can be made to con
sume them and pay us something
more for them than we are now
getting, he may still be made of use
in our agriculture.
The time has passed when the beef
steer can be expected to pay more
for the feeds he consumes than they
will bring on the open market. In
deed, it must be admitted that he
will frequently not even pay. their
ruling market price, by the pounds
of growth which he makes, unless
handled according to the best busi
ness and feeding methods.
The purpose of the beef steer on
the farm is simply to convert cheap
coarse farm products into another
product beef and while paying a
fair price for these feed stuffs leave
on the farm a large part of the plant
foods taken from the soil in their
production. ;
The Two Values of Feed
Products.
HE FEED products of the
made to pay on a large number of
Southern farms, but cheap home
grown feeds must be used and the
fertilizer value of the feeds consum
ed be given its full weight in de
termining the results.
The Kind of Cattle to Feed.
m
farm have a double value
and no farmer can afford to
ignore either, of these values. The
feed value is no more important and
sometimes no greater than the
fertilizer value; and in considering
whether it will pay to feed a farm
product, or sell it off the farm, the
intelligent farmer will be guided by
a comparison of the market price
with the feeding value plus the fer
tilizer value. In other words, it
will not pay to sell feed stuffs from
the farm unless the market price is
equal to the combined feeding and
fertilizer values of the feed stuffs;
and frequently not then, unless the
fertility of the farm is such that it
is already producing maximum
crops. For instance, If the plant
foods in a ton of -peavine hay are
worth $12, the careful feeder will
save $9 worth of plant foods in the
manure. If the feed value of this
hay be $9, then no farmer can profit
ably sell peavine hay off his farm
for less than $18 per ton; unless his
farm is already producing maximum
crops without the use of purchased
commercial fertilizers containing ni
trogen. Whfen we come to look upon . the
feeding of live stock, from this
standpoint and It is unquestionably
the correct one, then we shall re
vise our ideas as to whether it pays
to feed beef cattle.
The feeding of beef cattle may be
This aeries o! article, will ran throughout
the rear, the next four article In the erlM
being g follow : v
Oct. H By Buy In it to Beat Advantage.
Oct. 21. By Better Handling ol the Timber
Oct 28.-By Getting Better Result Next
Year from Tenant and Fr'n Labor.
Nov. 4. By Making the Most Out ol the
Boys and Girls. . " ;
OOD CATTLE for feeding are
scarce throughout our terri
tory and not really available
in many, cases. Much of our ; terri
tory could obtain feeders from west
ern Virginia and eastern Tennessee,
but the high freight rates, which pre
vail throughout the South, prohibii
the shipment of cattle long distances
for short feeding periods.
The common-practice is to pick up
the native cattle available. With
these, satisfactory results are ob-
quantity to supply the local i demand.
This condition always means high
priced feed stuffs, for the cost of
transporting bulky commodities like
feeding stuffs is always high in pro
portion to their value. jj
The basis of the concentrates in
the ration must be cottonseed meal,
for at ruling market prices) it is the
cheapest feeding stuff in America.
It is unusually rich in protein, but
since this can largely taker the place
of carbohydrates in a ration, is usu
ally in other sections the most costly
nutrient, and yields a manure much
richer in nitrogen, - the Advantage
which this excellent but cheap feed
ing stuff gives Southern cattle feed
ers can scarcely be overestimated.
Cottonseed, when less J than 25
cents a bushel, may be used in small
quantities not exceeding from 3 to 5
pounds a day. Corn and
the other
Twelve Things to Do in October
OW Alili WINTER OATS as soon as possible, and keep
working the wheat land so as to have it ready to sow
after, the first frost. I
2. Sow rye and crimson clover, rye and vetch, or rye alor
on all lands still without a winter cover. A cood fiek' 1
crimson clover will almost double your corn yield next f
3. Start the fattening hogs on corn, balancing then ration.
with shipstuff, or tankage, or middlings, and all the succulent
green feeds they will eat. Corn alone doesn't pay.
4. While picking cotton, select the best stalks, vigorous,
short-Jointed, prolific,, early-maturing, and with large bolls
and save the seed from them for planting next year, haying
it ginned separately so as to prevent mixing with other seed.
5. Keep up the selection of seed corn from the very best
' individual stalks in your field until you have three or four
times enough to plant your next year's crop. j
C. Save all the cowpeas and grass possible for hay, and get
this hay and the corn stover under shelter or in the stack.!
7. Start a pig and a calf and rush them until fat enough
to kill for early home use. V
8. Fix up root-house, cellars, etc., for keeping potatoes,
apples, etc. .
9. Give the dairy cows some extra green reed to supple
ment the pastures, and increase their grain ration.
10. Sow a turnip patch for use next spring, also
turnips, rape, crimson clover or rye for the poultry to eat
tills winter..
11. Set out some bulbs, some vines and some perennial
flowers about the house.
12. Get ready to drain any wet lands you may have.
some
tained in two ways. One is to buy
anything offered for less than it is
really worth, as is very frequently
done by good buyers ; and the other
plan is to pick out the best of the
native steers at about their real
value, and feed only for short pe
riods. To insure satisfactory re
turns when feeding from 100 to 120
days the. purchase price of the feed
ers should be from lc. to 1 c. a
pound less than the selling price of
the finished cattle. For a longer
feeding period, say 120 to .150 days,
a margin of from 1 cts. to 1 cts.
per pound may be required. "Any
article well bought is half sold;"
therefore, the cattle for feeding must
be bought right if the final results
of the operations are to be rght.
-..3.':
The Feeds for the Southern
Beef Maker.
HILE THE SOUTH has a great
variety of feeding stuffs there
are few sections where any of
them, except cottonseed and cotton
seed meal, is produced In sufficient
m
high-priced concentrates can seldom
be profitably used. To jjthe extent
which they may be used in balancing
the ration, cottonseed meal at $25
5
22 cents
a ton
consist
of
a ton of cottonseed mea
a bushel of cottonseed, ;
are of about equal value. !
The rough forage must
crops grown on the farm. The
legume hays, the cheaper grades of
grass hays, corn stover and com
silage, are those which seem most
readily available. Some of these are
now largely wasted, while the others
could and should be produced in
larger quantities. , ' j
The ; cheapest rough feeds, in our
experience, are shredded porn stover
and corn silage, but when the ma
chinery to handle these is not avail
able or the cost of shredder, silage
cutter, silo, etc., is too great for the
number of cattle fed, the1 cheaper
grades of grass hays, the legumes
and corn stalks, may be used.
, The better grades of high-priced
grass hays should not be j used for
feeding beef cattle, for neither their
feeding nor their fertilizer value Jus
tifies the high price which they com
mand , in our . markets. , Their
high price is due to their scarcity
and their special suitability for horse
feeding.
During several ' years the writer
has made beef cattle pay $27.50
a ton for cotton-seed meal, 22 cents
a bushel of cotton seed, $5 a ton
for shredded corn stover and $3 a
ton for corn silage, leaving the stable
manure as a handsome profit on the
labor of feeding. The old ration of
cottonseed hulls and meal may yet
be made profitable for short feeding
periods, under especially favorable
conditions, and when meal does not
sell for more than $25 a ton and
hulls for more than $5 a ton; out
most men who find profit in, this sort
of feeding do so through the excel
lent quality of stable manure pro
duced and through the purchase of
feeders for less than their real value.
In this as in all other lines of hu
man effort the man is after all the
most important factor in determin
ing results. The ability to buy good
feeders and put them in the feed lot
at the least cost; the growing and
furnishing of suitable cheap feeds;
(Continued on Page 18.)
FINEST STRAIN
ftPPLER OATS
PER BU.
Absolutely pure.' - - - - Si. 00
Hastings 100-Bush el Oats 1.10
Winter Grazing Oats, - - LOO
Burt Oats. - ... - - 1.00
FINE SEED WHEAT
PER BIT.
Georgia Purple Straw, - - $1.75
Currell's Prolific, - - - - 1.76
Red Wonder, . - - - - 1.75
Seed Barley, - - - - - - 1.00
All raised ou my own farm. No
Johnson Grass.
R. D. TATUM,
Fair View Farm. - Palmetto, Ga.
3C
N. L. Willet Seed Com'y
Aufrusta, Ga.
will sell tor My toflvuy all Turnips 40a 0, post
paid - Lookout ML Potatoes. SssL mi Oct UOntj.
Vetches, 4 kinds. Z kinds Rye: 6 kinds Oats, 5
ind Onion Sets. Jsl isiFts. stQrtfy, 8 kinds
mlon Sets. 4 kinds Irish Potatoes (Maine and
fnd crop). 9 kinds Sort hum.: Get Price Lis! .
Every Cotton Grower,
large or smalL rich or
poor, write to B, W.
H4.WKIN, Nona, Ga ,
for history and descrip
tive circular of his Extra
Prolific Cotton, and
Price of Seed, IVafree
and will be worth Hun
dreds of DOLLARS to
YOU
. Qui?k Maturity and
will make Three Bales
per Acre,
APPLER OATS
(Slightly mixed with Hairy Vetch seed.)
The Great Forage Crop
Per busheL - - - 90c
10 bushels or over, - 85c p-r busheL
1. B. PARKER,
Raleigh, N. C.
SEED
OATS
Choice re-cleaned Red
Rust Proof, Winter Turf,
Appier, and Culberson.
No th Carolina Seed Rye
and Seed Wheat. Write
for prices
HICKORY SEED CO.,
HICKORY. N.C
Nice Lot For Sale
Prices on application.
GRIMES BROS..
LEXINGTON. N. O.