Part 3

The beef cattle industry of the North is divided into two departments: first, producing in the Far West; second, preparing for market in the Middle West.

The Western producer can only provide grazing, and must then ship to the Middle West feeder, who raises the corn with which he prepares the cattle for market.

The shortness of the grazing season makes it impossible to put a thousand-pound beef on the market in a year; consequently the stock must be shipped to the Middle West in September, October or November, to be fattened and prepared for the market.

The breeding herds and the stock not ready for shipment to the feeders of the Middle West exist on the thin grasses, through eight months--from September to June.

These sections of arid soil and thin vegetation are further handicapped by the winters of intense cold, and of enforced housing and feeding; for, during six or seven months, and even eight months, of each year, there is scant vegetation to support animal life, and the struggle is a severe one to sustain life itself against the encroachments of the bitter temperature which so long prevails.

If the Middle West farmer should go into cattle-raising, his position would be almost identical with that of the cattle grower of the Far West, as his pasturage would be exhausted in October, and it would be necessary to feed the cattle until May; otherwise, his loss would be tremendous through partial starvation and exposure to inclement weather, and he could not count upon the survival of more than 75 per cent of his herd from one pasturing season to the next.

The farmer of the Middle West has six months of open weather, which must be devoted exclusively to planting, cultivating and harvesting his corn crop, and this crop takes up his land, leaving no acreage available for summer pasturage.

He produces corn in the summer, and begins feeding in the fall. According to the quality of cattle received from the Far West, he feeds 60, 90, and up to 120 days, when they are ready for market, and, according to the old saying, are "corn sold on the hoof."

Even the adoption of intensive methods does not enable the Northern grower to successfully compete with the Southern grower, because production in the North is limited to one-half the year, and the other half is wholly unproductive, during which period his stores are being consumed, without any returns whatever.

To house cattle during the winter is scarcely better than to leave them exposed to the rigors of climate, as confinement brings the scourge of tuberculosis; whereas in the South, and wherever life is spent in the open, cattle enjoy immunity from this plague.

Furthermore, the year-round supply of green food in the South is naturally conducive to the health and well-being of all animals, whereas in the North, for several months in the year, only concentrated food is available.

"The South, with her short, mild winters, and her abundance of grasses, can grow young cattle cheaper than the North."--W. J. Spillman, Chief of the Bureau of Farm Management, United States Department of Agriculture.

A mild climate, luxuriant pastures, a great variety of forage crops, a year-round supply of green food, and living outdoors all the year, are the factors that make Southern Louisiana the ideal cattle-raising section of the United States.

James Wilson, former Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, at the National Live Stock Show held in New Orleans in 1916, said:

"You have as fine domestic animals in the State of Louisiana today as you will find anywhere; the finest breeds of cattle--Holstein and others, as well as American breeds of Herefords, which are an improvement over the English Hereford."

In the corn belt the lands are not so productive in grains and pasture crops as the alluvial lands of Louisiana.

In the North the growing season for crops does not exceed six months; in Louisiana the productive period is twelve months.

In Northern states, animals can be pastured in the fields during six or seven months only; in Louisiana the animals may pasture in the open the whole year.

In the North, extensive and costly barns and equipment are essential for winter shelter and feeding, and vast quantities of grain, hay, ensilage, and other foods, must be raised and stored, as the period of winter-feeding extends over six months; in Louisiana, open sheds facing south provide all the shelter needed, as aside from cold rains at intervals during February or March, there are no rigors of climate.

Careful estimates by farm experts, and by authorities on cattle, place the cost of production in Louisiana at less than 60 per cent of the cost in the most favored corn-belt states.

There is no winter here, as understood in the North. Frost is a rarity, frequently being absent for several years, and is never severe; the rainfall is well distributed and averages 60 inches a year; extremes of temperature are very rare; the average for January is 59 degrees, and for July, 82 degrees, over the Gulf Coast area of Southern Louisiana; and vegetation flourishes the year round.

The cost of summer feeding in Southern Louisiana, as compared with summer feeding in the corn-belt states, shows a difference of about 25 per cent in favor of the former.

In winter feeding, the difference is altogether in favor of Louisiana. Furthermore, practically none of the food consumed here is required to keep up the animal heat, whereas 30 per cent of the food given Northern cattle during the winter is absorbed by this requirement alone.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the cost of ensilage in the Northern states ranges from $1.50 to $4 per ton, and it is generally conceded that corn ensilage in the Middle West costs an average of $2.50 per ton.

On the alluvial lands of Southern Louisiana it has been proved that ensilage can be produced at 50 cents to $1.50 per ton, and the yield per acre is two crops of ten to twenty tons each, as against one crop of five to ten tons in the North.

According to the Bureau of Plant Industry, the best bluegrass pastures of the North will carry only one head of cattle to two acres for about six months of the year; whereas on the alluvial lands of Louisiana, Bermuda grass and lespedeza combined forms permanent pasture which will carry several head of cattle ten months on a single acre.

With a network of waterways and railroads, nearer the great consuming markets of the East than any other important cattle-growing section, and but a short distance from Chicago and the important markets of the Middle States, Southern Louisiana occupies a strategic commercial position of great money-value to those who raise cattle, as well as other products.

Out of six thousand members of the American Hereford Society, a grower from the Gulf Coast took the greatest number of prizes for a herd of Hereford cattle, and also took the grand championship prize for a Hereford bull, against the whole of the United States, which shows the merit of this section of country.