BREEDING AND BUYING CATTLE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1883, 6 March 1880, Page 2

BREEDING AND BUYING CATTLE.

True economy on the farm does not differ materially from the true political economy o£ a nation. The most prosperous nations produce at home all that their resources will permit, and sell all the surplus their industry can produce; or, in other words, they buy only what they must, and sell all they can. So with the farmer, he must study his resources, and purchase such things as he cannot produce so cheaply at home. All farming operations must be carried on with a small margin of profit; and he who does not study closely his expenditures and the product to he expected from them will find his labour bring only disappointment and loss. The beef producer finds the price of his cattle finished for market but little more than the cost of the food and attendance in growing them. Ho relies principally on the purchase of store cattle for feeding, because, he says, “ I could not afford to raise steers for the price I pay.” This opinion is usually baaed simply on the price per head he pays in the market, and not upon the quality of the animals. The considerations in favor of home-breeding are many. The mere price paid for the young cattle cannot decide it. The capacity of the digestive system to digest and assimilate focd, together with the form and thrifty condition of the animal, must all be taken into account in determining the real feeding value of a two or three-year-old steer. Lean steers that have made a very slow growth up to two or two and a half years, will require double the amount of food to put on 1001 b live weight than those do that have been thrifty good feeders from calfhood. It not nnfrequently costs the whole value of a lean poorly-kept steer to put it in condition for the market. Such steers are dear at any price. It is owing to the purchase of many such young cattle by feeders that the profits are so often small, or wholly wanting. These young cattle have been kept upon food so deficient in quantity and quality that the digestive system has remained undeveloped, and this must bo developed by the new feeders before the steers can be gotten into a growing and fattening condition. But that stunt from the earlyfeeding can never be fully overcome. Now let us sum up some of the advantages of home-bred steers over those purchased in the market. Ist. The farmer can select his breeding stock. Ho can select the best cows from common stock, both as to form and milking qualities, and a well-selected thoroughbred sire. This will give him grades of excellent feeding quality. He can also make excellent selections of the beat calves for raising—at least he should discard all puny ones, and especially mincing eaters. He needs animals of strong appetite and vigorous digestion. These calves are kept for the production of meat, and it is merely a waste of time and food to attempt to coddle a physically defectively organised calf. 2nd. These calves may he raised largely on food which is not otherwise turned to so good an account. It is not necessary to feed them on new milk more than two or three weeks, when they may be profitably fed on refuse milk, grass, bran, oilcake, and grain. It is turning a large amount of food into cash, or saving the expenditure of cash, which is even better. This generous early feeding will cause them to mature early, and bring them to an early market. 3rd. These calves will be handled and made familiar with the system practised by the breeder. They will be ready for full feeding from the first to the last day of their lives. There need be no such final fattening period as in the case of the market steers, because they are carried forward with good appetite and flesh from the beginning, and with them food will produce its best results. It is not extravagant to say that those home-bred steers, on the average, will be worth double those purchaseable at the same age. The system of feed can only be complete when it starts with the animal at birth, and carries it along under the best system until ready for market.—” National Live Stock Journal.”