Profitable stock raising; a careful discussion of the problems involved in the development of profitable live stock and the maintenance of soil fertility

Preface

UPON improved live stock the prosperity of the American farmer depends. If he so desires, every American farmer can have profitable farm animals. To fully explain the general principles which enter into profitable live stock, this little book is written and given to the public. It points out the profitable types of farm animals, how to handle them so as to get the best returns, how to select breeding stock, how to feed and market all classes of farm animals. Technicalities have been carefully avoided so that anyone can, if he will, derive much benefit from studying its pages.

In the preparation of this book, I have been very ably assisted by Mr. Fred L. Petty, assistant editor of Orange Judd Farmer, to whom I hereby acknowledge my obligations.

CLARENCE A. SHAMEL.

Chicago, October, 1910.

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CHAPTER I. The Live Stock Field

Page

Live stock most important factor in farm life — Its production not keeping pace with population — Statistics show supply short of actual requirements — Some problems of profitable stock production — Valuable land demands more efficient animals — Rich land depends upon live stock — Value of manure should receive greater appreciation — ^The need of more and better animals — Breed better and feed better.

CHAPTER 11.

What permanent soil use requires — China, India and other famine-plagued countries have small live stock supply — ^The prosperous agriculture of western Europe coincident with large stock production — Russia has little live stock and an eight-bushel wheat yield — ^Abandoned tobacco lands of Maryland and Virginia were worn out by the one-crop system — Some accepted principles of soil maintenance — Rotation alone not sufficient — Permanent agriculture established most easily by means of systems of live stock farming — Care of live stock demands high use of intelligence — Is conducive to contentment on farm — Makes for better citizenship — Discourages itineracy of farm labor — Live stock is the connecting link between rotation and permanent agriculture.

Chapter III

New England and North Atlantic states need a new agriculture — Movement of eastern migration — Abandoned farms can be acquired cheaply — Dairying, poultry, sheep and swine should be made the basis of operations — Unlimited markets easily accessible — Dairying demands clover, builds up soil.

Vi TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page increases yields — Rational agriculture based upon live stock means an affluent agricultural East — Haphazard methods must go.

CHAPTER IV. Southern Agriculture Needs Farm Animals 41

The one -crop idea in the South — Why old fields were abandoned — Present acre production low in many instances — Readjustment of southern agriculture in progress — Possibilities for live stock farming in South — Best forage crops thrive — Cottonseed furnishes unexcelled concentrates — The South should produce meat — Cattle and hogs thrive and are prolific in southern meadows — The South should grow its own work stock — Wonderful land for legumes — These will furnish forage and soil nitrogen — Increased fertility will produce more cotton and tobacco than before, and animal products in addition — The South buys too much foodstuff, should produce it at home — A rebirth of southern agriculture with live stock a balancing factor.

Chapter V

Numerous evidences of waning productivity — ^Unintelligent cropping showing its effect upon lands of nation's granary — Lowered fertility contemporaneous with lessened stock production — Shipping away vast quantities of corn and hay bad economy — Can live stock pay on $200 land? — More sheep and hogs — More clover, alfalfa and cowpeas — More nitrogen in soil — Larger crops — Plenty of feed — More meat animals and more manure — Restore the humus and build up the soil — Com, cattle and clovers the tripod supporting western farms.

Chapter VI

All live stock is not profitable — Four dairy cows to do the work of two not profitable — Scrub stock must go from valuable land — Scrub dairy animals do not pay board — Inferior meat animals cannot utilize feed economically — How to weed out the scrubs — Test the dairy stock — Select breeding ani-

TABLE OF CONTENTS Vll

Page mals intelligently — Examine blood lines carefully — The individuality of the animal — Not all pure bred stock superior breeders — Get both blood and individuality — Indiscriminate breeding spells disaster — How to grade up the herd or flock.

Chapter VII

Good blood lines — Discriminating selection — Good feed and shelter — Use pure bred sire and good grade stock — Class and breed determined by environment and personal taste — ^Type and conformation — Quality, what it is and how to detect it — • Best animal the one which utilizes feed most economically in attaining end for which it is kept.

CHAPTER VIII. Principles of Breeding 89

Objects of breeding — Cross breeding — Line breeding — In and in breeding — Relative influence of sire and dam — Is a good individual, not pure bred, preferable to a mediocre pure bred sire ? — Care of sire — Care of dam — How it differs from feeding for market — Blood cannot do its best without good feeding.

CHAPTER IX. Feeds and Feeding 99

Principles of feeding — Nutritive ratio — Balanced ration — Feed depends upon the result desired — Use of legumes — ^Alfalfa, clover and cowpeas — Value of grasses — Grains and concentrates — Succulent feed — Special feeds — Suitable combinations for different feeding purposes — Fattening rations and maintenance rations — Individuality of animals influences feeding capacity.

Chapter X

Magnitude of dairy industry — Dairy breeds and types — Efficiency in dairy cows — Feeds and feeding — Cooperative breeding and testing — Soiling crops and the silo — Winter feeds and concentrates — ^Types of dairy barns — Dairy sanitation — Effects of dairying on soil.

VUl TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page CHAPTER XI.

Review of history of sheep in America — Breeds and types — ^The type now required — Breeding and management — Lambing — Care of ewes and lambs — Sheep in summer — Pasture and management — Docking, shearing and clipping — Fattening for market — Benefit to soil — "The sheep has a golden hoof."

CHAPTER Xn.

Factors of success — Breeds and types — Principles of selection — Care and feeding of breeding swine — One or two litters per year — Pasture and forage — Systems of grazing — Hogging off crops — Details of fattening — Utility of swine on high-priced land — What the market demands.

CHAPTER XIII.

Magnitude of American horse values — Small proportion of mares bred — Future horse demand — Breeds and types — Choice of stallion — Kind of mare to breed — Scrub mare should be eliminated — Care of mare — Why so few mares breed — Feed and care of colt — Its first winter — Colt as a yearling — Market demands and values.

CHAPTER XIV.

Strong market demand — Prices always high — Types — Breeds of jacks — American jacks improvement upon imported ones — Type of mare to breed — What constitutes a good mule — Life, weight, and action.

CHAPTER XV.

Baby Beep 214

What it is — Kind of calves to feed — Age and condition — Kinds of feed — How to secure best results — Shelter and water — Forages and concentrates — Succulent feeds.

TABLE OF CONTENTS ix

Page CHAPTER XVI.

What they are — ^The market demand — How to plan for them — Breeds best adapted — ^Time of lambing — Care of lambs — Marketing — Prices and profits.

CHAPTER XVII.

Pastures for Grazing Farm Animals 237

Permanent pastures on farm land — English practice — Build up the grass land — Feeding values.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Factors influencing feeding — Cost and value — Feeding periods — How to feed during the finishing period — Use of high-priced concentrates — Preparing for shipment — Finishing horses for market — Highest finish or bloom impossible without quality in animals — ^A stunted animal never regains its quality — Profits of stock finishing.

CHAPTER XIX

The beef situation — Cattle business in transitional stage — BreakiQg up of western ranches — Encroachment of sheep industry upon cattle ranges — Advent of homesteader — Status of industry in Texas — Increasing beef supply demanded by Northwest — No more cheap beef likely — Conclusion .

List of Illustrations

Page

Elevation of Horse Barn 12

Ground Plan of Horse Barn 13

A Northwestern Farm Granary 27

Self-Feeder for a Missouri Farm 46

Beef Cattle Barn 66

Iowa Hog House ^2

Elevation of Hog House 84

Floor Plan of Hog House 85

South Dakota Stock Barn 104

Modern Dairy House 124

A Michigan Dairy Barn and Silo 133

Elevation of Dairy Barn 142

Ground Plan of Dairy Barn 143

An Idaho Lambing Shed 155

A Brick Feeding Floor 180

Movable Hog Shelter 184

An Illinois Round Barn 191

General Farm Barn 199

Heating Water Supply 223

Run for Small Pigs 239

Rear View of Dairy Barn 1 253

Introduction

No factor is of as great importance in American agriculture as the keeping of profitable live stock. By profitable live stock is meant stock that will pay for its keep and return a net profit. The value of profitable live stock is appreciated by a large number of people, but the bulk of the American farmers do not thoroughly understand why one animal is more profitable than another. It is manifestly bad policy to keep a dairy cow at a cost for feeding and maintenance of $60 a year when she returns only $40 or $50 in the form of butter and milk in addition to her calf. Dairy statisticians tell us that hundreds of thousands of dairy cows in the United States belong to that unprofitable type.

It is also perfectly apparent that a meat producing animal of any kind which does not mature rapidly, attain at least fair size in a short time, which does not utilize every bit of food eaten, and cannot be placed on the market at a good price, is also unprofitable. Live stock statisticians also tell us that there are many thousands of meat producing animals of this unprofitable type, particularly on the general farms in America.

Because of this lack of information, it is highly important that the general farmer, as well as the special stock farmer, should have these matters brought to his attention. For this reason this little book is written. It is impossible, in a work of this kind, to go into detail in any particular line. The thought throughout is to call attention, first, to the general principles involved in every branch pf profitable live stock husbandry and to give specific instances illustrating the problems discussed. It gops without saying that if the general principles are tlioroughly understood, and if these general principles are i'.'ustrated even briefly, the progressive farmer will be able to work out his own salvation ; consequently, while there are numberless books on different phases of live stock, there are none which fill the need which this book is intended to supply.

The exclusive grain growers of the Northwest are rapidly changing to diversified agriculture. In certain sections of South Dakota, for example, wheat and oats formerly occupied all the attention of the farmer. Yields greatly decreased until farming on a large scale became unprofitable except during the most favorable seasons. Diversification is rapidly taking place. Large numbers of farm animals are being kept. Corn is being grown, potatoes and even cabbage occupy a part of the land. In New England the worn-out farms are being made profitable by the keeping of dairy animals, of hogs and of poultry, by the growing of alfalfa, cowpeas, crimson clover and vetch, by the buying and feeding on the farms of some form of concentrated feeds like oil meal, cottonseed meal or refuse from the flour mills of the Northwest. It has been definitely proved that these older farms along the Atlantic coast can be profitably handled if live stock is kept, if leguminous plants are grown and if, third, but not least in importance, the soils are given thorough and intelligent treatment.

But it is not only South Dakota; it is not only New England; it is not only the older states along the Atlantic coast that must give this matter of profitable live stock careful attention. Illinois and Iowa, with their apparently inexhaustible soils.

INTRODUCTION 3

are finding that with the increase in land values, it is impossible to pay even a reasonable interest on the investment unless, along with corn, hogs, cattle and sheep are raised; unless these black soils are frequently rested by the growing of some leguminous crops and by the feeding of these same crops to animals raised at home.

In profitable live stock production, of course, the first thing is the raising of sufficient feed. The next thing is the selection of animals in any department of animal industry whatever that will more than pay for their keep. If these two things are borne in mind; if particular attention is given to the treatment of soil to produce larger crops; if particular attention is given to getting rid of undesirable animals, no matter what the sacrifice may be ; if particular attention is given to the selection of breeding stock of the chosen type, not only will the animals themselves become more profitable, but the fertility of the land will be built up rather than depleted. The producing capacity of every section of the United States will be increased by the keeping of profitable live stock.

So it comes about that this book is written to call attention to these important problems, and it is given to the public with the hope that it will be a factor in greater prosperity to the American farmer.