BEEF PRODUCTION

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 246, 7 January 1928, Page 23

BEEF PRODUCTION

EARLY MATURITY CRAZE A CHICAGO OPINION The successful business man caters for th© needs of his customers, and graziers must take a leaf from his book. Whatever opinions may be held regarding the craze for “baby” meat, the present-day demand is for that class of beef and mutton, and, therefore, producers must give consumers what they want. The views of the “Breeders’ Gazette,” Chicago, on the subject, which follow, will be endorsed in New Zealand: “We have stated that ‘baby’ beef and ‘baby’ lamb are not the last word in quality mt'at, and we repeat the statement with renewed emphasis. The question of what is the best meat on the table is one thing; the matter what may best be produced by those engaged in meat-making for Pecuniary profit it another. “The family trade calls for small <uts, ai:d will doubtless continue to call for them; so that ‘baby* feeders need not fear for the future of their market. Th© best hotel, club, and restaurant trade, on the other hand, could handle satisfactorily a somewhat heavier and better-flavoured product, and could well afford to pay a Price for it that would make up to the feeder the difference in production costs. Whether they will do so or not is a question for the future. There is a place for both, the major market, of course, being for the smaller cuts.

“We do not call a fat 9001 b calf ‘finished* beef. A milk-fed, stallstuffed youngster is ‘finished’ in one sense when he is full of fat, and is ready for the butcher, because he cannot be made any better. His real flesh httuscle) has never been developed, idis baby tissues are enveloped in fat, and cut easily at the table; but this is not ‘prime beef* under any fair deflation of the term. It may be that l * will not pay anybody in this country to grow out and finish prime beef or mutton of the sort for which the best British tables are famous. We ‘tdyise no one to try it, because the Prime object in stock-feeding is not the production of the acme in quality, but the best result at the bank.” American Methods It may be pointed out that the Methods of beef production in America differ from those in New Zealand, and that it is much easier for American Producers to cater for the “baby” meat The majority of the cattle are bred on the ranges and purchased in Jtore condition by fatteners, who top hem off. In regions where the land !* unsuited for tillage, due to either Jts rough nature or scant rainfall, breeding herds are maintained, and the Acreage raised chiefly on the cheap Pasturage, and sold as feeder steers. the other hand, in the maize belt, where grain is cheap compared with Pasturage, the majority of the steers *ttened are transported in from the a ng© districts, where they can be raised at less cost. Although many steers are still fed by farmers, the business has largely passed into the 'nnds of professional feeders, who fatfrom one to many carloads of anima,» annually.

Hie breeder makes his profit, by the cattle to a certain stage, the feeder his by “.finishing” them*

Both are experts in their respective arafts. The production of “baby” beef is no new thing in America, for in 1917 Morrison and Henry, in their standard work, “Feeds and Feeding,” stated that the most intensive method of beef production is fattening calves for “baby” beef. Under this system beef-bred calves are fattened as they grow, reaching a good finish when 16 to IS months old, and weighing about I,loolb or less. In the production of this class of meat first of all blOcky calves of good beef type and conformation must be selected, for “scrub” or dairy-bred calves will not usually reach the desired maturity and finish at this early age. Profitable “baby” beef production requires a high degree of experience, judgment, and skill, and it is a mistake for the inexperienced to dip too heavily into this branch of produc-