This book is included in the Self Reliance Ranching section.
INTRODUCTION.
THE growing tendency among cattle feeders is to regard quality and finish in cattle as superfluous, due to the narrowing margin in price between the poorest kinds of cattle that reach the market and those of best grade. The majority of feeders can remember when such animals as canner cows had no value with the packer or retail butcher, and the increasing uses which have been found for them, sufficient to give quotable prices from day to day, have been interpreted by these feeders to mean that quality no longer has the value it once enjoyed. Nothing could be further from the truth. Quality cattle will always be properly appraised, because they produce the class of. meat that is easiest to sell, requiring a minimum of effort on the part of the ultimate salesman.
From year to year the standards as to market types and classes are changing, based on the changing demands of the consumer. The cattle feeder usually learns of these changes when he sells, and occasionally feels that the market asks for any kind of cattle other than what he brings. The chief difficulty in meeting exactly the market demands, lies in the fact that the standards of cattle of one or two decades ago still persist in the minds of many feeders and are perpetuated by the types of steers recognized by the majority of judges in the fat stock shows. Whether or not the feeder intends to do so, he carries in his mind the standard of perfection established by the heavy, richly finished bullocks popular twenty years ago, and he interprets the trimmer killing characteristics which modern cattle show, coupled with lesser size, as distinct steps backward.
The chief factor in bringing about the change in type has been the change in retail demand. The public, while more fastidious as to the cuts of beef it consumes, does not eat as much meat as it did formerly, and will not tolerate the waste in cuts that the rich steaks and roasts of a half century ago possessed. The modifications in market standards are based on these two simple facts, and the trade must educate itself to the idea. The retailer has been most sensitive to this change in demand, but the reaction on the packer has been so direct that he has been forced to translate immediately the desires of the consumer into a type of cattle suitable for the production of the best selling cuts. The principal factors that have caused the change are the increase in the population of cities coupled with the reduced ratio of producers ; the inroads on the family purse made by luxuries, which have restricted the percentage spent on necessities; and the reduced size of families which has permitted groceries with small meat shops vending pound to two-pound cuts to make deep inroads into the business of the specialized butcher.
The demand for heavy cattle varies little throughout the year. The markets of the big cities, principally New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston, supply the principal trade, the sales being largely to hotels and clubs that have a standard demand for certain cuts the year around. This natural demand for heavy finished cattle takes only about 1 5 per cent of the cattle on the market, their live weight being 1 300 pounds and up, and their carcasses making about 750 pounds of beef and up. In order that prices for this class of cattle remain steady and hold the same relative relation to other classes of cattle, the supply must be regular as a few too many can readily glut the market. Unfortunately, it is difficult to finish cattle of this sort at all seasons of the year ; few of them coming on the market in the period from August
1st to February 1st excepting cattle finished for shows and for the Christmas trade. From February on there is usually a sufficiency of this class of cattle, while late March and April may find a few too many with consequent drops in price. On the other hand, in times of scarcity of heavy cattle, buyers having orders, for this class of stock make competition so lively that steers weighing 1400 pounds or up which will satisfy their trade, often bring $i to $2 above their real value as compared to smaller cattle of the same grade. A judgment of values based on the price of this class of cattle either in times of scarcity or surplus, is bound to be misleading to the average feeder.
The profit in beef production in the future will increasingly lie in quality stock. Early maturity and quick money turn-overs are certain to be the keynotes of future meat production, due to high land and feed values. Cold blooded stock will never utilize feed for fattening and finishing until the animals are well grown, three years old or over, while breeders and feeders will need to have their money back out of their animals by the time they are two years old, unless the cattle are range grown, when the difference in production costs will permit their profitable retention for another year. Furthermore, the value of well-bred cattle has been demonstrated during the first four years following the war by the fact that well finished yearlings have topped the market at all times for periods longer than a week in duration. During this time there has been a spread of fifty cents to two dollars per hundredweight between the yearlings and older cattle of the same quality. Only cattle high in the blood of the purebreds are capable of reaching this degree of finish in their yearling form. A six-months calf of good blood, dropped in the spring, can be fattened so as to be marketed the following spring or summer from any cornbelt farm, but a six-months scrub will not efficiently utilize its feed because its growth is slow, and it will not develop as rapidly, fatten as well, nor grow as satisfactorily as the well-bred animal. Well-bred calves can always be finished from calfhood on, and can make the best quality of carcass, since they can utilize efficiently feed that the scrub cannot consume economically
from lack of capacity or from inability to fatten or grow.
The use of purebred sires is the certain means of success in the future. This does not mean the indiscriminate use of such animals without regard to results prices paid for them must be always as firmly grounded in returns as prices paid for feeders but it does indicate that through them the efficient beef production of the future must be built. Quality as recognized today means better meat for the consumer, better killing qualities for the packer, and more efficient feeders for the producer. People are not buying meat nowadays to throw part of it away, and the majority of families with restricted pocketbooks are buying the medium weight cuts. The livestock market simply interprets the tendency of the meat-eating public and it recognizes that consumers will not tolerate waste except at a discount.
JAMES BROWN.
Table of Contents. INTRODUCTION, by James Brown THE FUNCTION OF CATTLE Position of Cattle in the System of Farming Origin and Kinds of Cattle CATTLE BREEDS Breed Qualifications The Purebred Animal How the Purebred Developed The Value of the Purebred The Pedigree CATTLE BREEDING How Cattle Are Improved Grading Up Beef Cattle The Relative Influence of Sire and Dam The Proportion of Purebred Cattle Community Breeding The Distribution of the Breeds THE PRODUCTION OF BEEF CATTLE Foundation Blood for Beef Production The Problems of the Range Cattle Breeder Buying Feeders Feeding Equipment Some Cattle Rations Growing the Calf The Advantage of Young Cattle Essentials of a Complete Ration Silage Requisites of a Good Silo Silo Capacities MANAGEMENT OF THE BEEF HERD Three Types of Cattle Farming The Maintenance of the Breeding Herd The Pasture The Contents of the Hay Stack Sanitation on the Farm Cattle Diseases The Cow and Her Calf Gestation Table THE CATTLE INDUSTRY The United States' Position in Beef Production The American Beef Export Trade The Change in the Center of Beef Production The Consumption of Beef CATTLE PRICES The Relation of the Market to the Feeding Business Why Markets Fluctuate The Two Classes of Price Fluctuations Seasonal Variations in Price The Problem of Marketing Beef in All Seasons Methods of Reaching the Most Favorable Markets The Effect of Supply and Demand on Hoof Prices THE BEEF CARCASS The Relative Value of Carcass Cuts Factors in Carcass Values The Relation of Carcass Price to Hoof Price. MARKET CLASSES OF CATTLE How Cattle Are Classified How Cattle Are Graded Characteristics of Different Grades and Classes of Beef Cattle and Butcher Stock Grades and Classes of Feeders and Stockers CATTLE TYPES How Type Is Determined Characteristics of the Standard Types of Beef Steer Dressing Percent MARKETING CATTLE Preparations for Shipping Shipping Counsel Handling Cattle at the Market Slaughtering Cattle HIDES AND BYPRODUCTS The Market Classification of Hides Byproducts REFERENCES
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