Louisiana beef cattle

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Deer
CATTLE

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LOUISIANA
BEEF
CATTLE

WILLIAM CARTER STUBBS, Pu.D.

Formerly Professor of Agriculture
Louisiana State University and Director of
State Experiment Stations

COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY
THE LOUISIANA COMPANY
NEW ORLEANS

/

APR 20 1917

©cia461359 |

FOREWORD

The following remarks relative to Louisiana Beef
Cattle are proffered the public to show the marvel-
ous advantages possessed by the alluvial lands of
Louisiana, for the growing of cattle.

An intelligent use of these advantages will bring
wealth to the individual, the State and the Nation.

WILLIAM CARTER STUBBS, PH.D.

LOUISIANA BEEF
CATTLE

+|HE wealth-producing possibilities of cattle-

‘ia4| raising are written into the history, litera-
EN ture and art of every race; and with every
é 2) nationality riches have always been count-

Wea

cas) ed in cattle and corn.

We find cattle mentioned in the earliest known
records of the Hebrews, Chaldeans and Hindus, and
carved on the monuments of Egypt, thousands of
years before the Christian era.

Among the primitive peoples wealth was, and still
is, measured by the size of the cattle herds, whether
it be the reindeer of the frigid North, the camel of
the Great Sahara, or herds of whatsoever kind that
are found in every land and in every clime.

The earliest known money, in Ancient Greece, was
the image of the ox stamped on metal; and the Latin
word pecunia and our own English ‘‘pecuniary”’ are
derived from pecus—cattle.

Although known to the Eastern Hemisphere since
the dawn of history, cattle are not native to the
Western Hemisphere, but were introduced into
America during the sixteenth century.

Cortez, Ponce de Leon, De Soto and the other
conquistadores from Old Madrid, who sailed the seas
in quest of gold, brought with them to the New
World the monarchs of the bull ring, and introduced
the national sport of Spain into the colonies founded
in Peru, Mexico, Florida and Louisiana.

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LOUISIANA BEEF CATTLE

The long-horned, half-wild herds encountered by
the pioneers, and by the ‘‘Forty-niners,’’ who three
centuries later trekked across the continent in quest
of gold in California, were descendants of the bull
pens of Mexico City, St. Augustine and New Orleans.

A different type of cattle was brought over to
Jamestown, the first English colony, in the seven-
teenth century; these were strictly utilitarian, de-
signed for the triple service of enriching the larder
with dairy products, supplementing the abundant
meat supply of buftalo, deer and other game and
providing the ox as the draft animal.

The pioneers, striking out from the Atlantic sea-
board, carried with them their domestic cattle, which
were introduced and fostered wherever settlements
were made in their progress across the continent.

It was not until after the Revolutionary War that
wealthy planters of Virginia imported Herefords from
England, Jerseys from the Isle of Jersey, and the
flower of other Old World herds.

Even then, extensive breeding of high-grade animals
languished for years, owing to the unprogressive farm-
ing methods; and at a later period on account of the
dominancy of the Western cattle ranges.

The public domain of the West and Southwest,
owing to the vast areas of grazing land which cost the
cattlemen nothing, became the controlling factor in the
American cattle industry, reaching its climax about
1880.

Subsequently these great feeding grounds were
invaded by the sheep-grower, whose flocks destroyed
the pastures and drove out the cattle wherever they
appeared.

The death knell of the national cattle range was
sounded by the United States Government in throw-
ing open the public lands to settlers.

During the romantic period of the cattle outfit—the

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LOUISIANA BEEF CATTLE

cowboy with his bucking broncho, lariat and six-
shooter—many of the important cities and towns of
today came into existence as humble adjuncts of the
live stock industry.

There are men living today who have witnessed the
beginning, the rise, and almost the extinction, of the
Western cattle range.

A complete revolution has been brought about in
the cattle industry within a lifetime. The change has
been a rapid one from the free range to the fenced
pasture; the open ranges turned into farms and
settlements.

With the advent of changed conditions, the rancher
of restricted territory and reduced herds ceased to be
an important factor in directly supplying the market,
as he was forced to utilize the land that was not
desirable for homesteaders, and the pasturage being
insufficient to suitably fatten stock, he was compelled
to ship his cattle to the feeders of the Middle West to
prepare them for market.

Meanwhile, the Middle West, or corn-belt states,
being unable to raise cattle in an economical way,
developed into a feeding station, where young cattle
from the Western ranges were shipped to be fattened
and prepared for the market.

With the decrease of range cattle, year by year,
fewer Western beeves reach the corn belt to be fin-
ished and made ready for market.

The early settlers of Southern Louisiana raised
cattle after the fashion that prevailed on the plains
of Texas; that is, great herds without care or atten-
tion of any kind increased and multiplied and were
annually rounded up and marketed; the returns were
virtually all profit, as the cattle found their suste-
nance entirely in the luxuriant natural pasturage.

With the change of conditions in the cattle-growing
world, Louisiana began the improvement of its herds,

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LOUISIANA BEEF CATTLE

so that today there are thousands of highly bred
cattle in the state, equal to the best that can be found
anywhere.

In a consideration of any branch of the live stock
industry, a review of the world-wide conditions be-
comes necessary to establish a standard of comparison
between the industry in a given locality as against all
other localities, and such a review at the present time
shows an international shortage of beef cattle that
even threatens famine.

The day of nondescript cattle of inferior quality is
rapidly passing. Through breeding, they are being
steadily supplanted by higher grade, perfectly devel-
oped animals which yield the proper proportions of
lean and fat, whose meat is tender, nutritious and
palatable.

The Old World breeds have been improved and
perfected, through the skill of the American grower,
until American stock has become the standard of the
whole world, from the standpoint of excellence in
every particular.

There are a multitude of reasons why it will never
be possible for the growers of the Eastern Hemisphere,
with the exception of Great Britain and the Scandi-
navian countries, to successfully compete with the
United States in bringing the standard of their beef
cattle up to the high point already attained in this
country.

No longer ago than ten years, cattle were not
acceptable as collateral except by banks in the West-
ern cattle centers.

Today, cattle are standard collateral for loans,
approved by the Treasury of the United States Gov-
ernment and acceptable everywhere, as cattle are as
good as gold all over the world; and a cattle enter-
prise managed with ability and integrity is the safest
business known.

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LOULS TAN’ BEEF CATTLE

There are diseases to which cattle are subject; but
these, like the diseases to which mankind is subject,
are now controlled by science, and can be quickly
eradicated, even though a foothold is once gained;
and that a foothold should be gained at all is as much
beyond the bounds of reason as that the cities of New
York and Chicago should, in this advanced age, be
devastated by a scourge of cholera, smallpox, yellow
fever, or what not.

According to official estimates of the United States
Government, in I910 there were 41,178,000 head of
beef cattle in the United States, having a value of
$785,261,000, while on January I, 1917, there were
40,849,000 head of beef cattle, having a value of
$1,465,786,000; a decrease in supply, but an increase
in value, within seven years, of 86.66 per cent.

In addition to superior natural conditions, the
United States, on account of the great distance to
other countries where cattle can be raised success-
fully, is protected against competition, at all times
and under all conditions.

The United States for a quarter of a century was
the world’s greatest export nation, and this trade has
fallen off only in recent times, because of the shortage
at home.

Our export business well illustrates the changing
conditions in the cattle industry, and the record of
live cattle exported from Chicago is a notable
example, namely:

Cattle
EX PORUS 1st OO ee see eee eee 321,301
Exports (O12) ones Seer e eee 23,006
EX POLS AiG lh? a. epee ae 260
EX OLtS MielOUAs 4. sn sew eee 182

This table shows that the export trade was virtually
extinct a year before the European War began; and if

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LOUISIANA BEEF CATTLE

revived, it will be because of exorbitant prices brought
about by the abnormal European demand, due to the
depletion of the cattle herds abroad.

Official statistics show that prior to the European
War 90.55 per cent of all the European cattle were
within the boundaries of the now-belligerent countries.

The records at that time, covering both beef cattle
and dairy-herds, were as follows:

Pein thot) dak ae Bole 36,237,000
Sere yt lO) ns & od oelg gi Aes 20,944,000
Austria-Hungary............. 17,787,003
Pe elas Mla end dea kote Polen aed 12,286,849
United Kingdom............. 12,030,789
MME GY ois ace yd 2 ek . 6,726,000
| ia eee pease 6,198,861
PII ya 9% ol Sdreeare 4 BAns oo 2,667,000
BOIS ics ks es weds cago tlnn 1,831,000

Even prior to the war, the world-supply of cattle
was diminishing, and now the herds of these nations,
representing nine-tenths of the European supply, are
depleted as never before, while the one-tenth remain-
ing supply of the neighboring neutral nations is
reduced by the drafts of the warring powers.

The immense demand in recent years has caused
the marketing of vast numbers of the best improved
cattle in the United States, including great inroads
upon the breeding herds, as cattle growers have
marketed their stock without regard to the future,
looking solely to the large immediate profits.

The depletion and deterioration of the breeding
herds is a source of great danger, as it cannot fail to
result in a still further decrease in production, and
threatens to seriously impair the meat supply of the
American people.

As an infinitely worse condition prevails in the
other cattle-producing countries of the world, it is

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LOUISIANA BEEF CATTLE

obvious that we cannot look to any outside source of
supply, either to replenish our herds, or to provide
our meat food requirements.

The increased cost of production in the North has
resulted in the great advancement of the dairying
industry, to meet the American food requirements.

In 1850 the milch cows on American farms num-
bered about 6,000,000. This number was increased
to 8,500,000 in 1860, and to about 13,000,000 in 1880;
and the census of 1900 showed 17,100,000. In 1907,
they numbered 20,625,000, and January I, 1917,
22,768,000, or more than one-third of our entire cattle
herds.

The change from beef-cattle raising to dairying is
most noticeable in the Eastern and the North Central
States, where the lack of pasturage and the increased
cost of forage make the production of beef less profit-
able than formerly, while the proximity to large
centers of population and great cities has greatly
stimulated the demand for dairy products.

In some sections of the country dairying has en-
croached to such an extent on the beef cattle industry
that the latter has ceased to be a factor of importance
in those localities.

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 im-
possible 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

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LOUISIANA BEEF CATTLE

the thin grasses, through eight months—from Sep-
tember 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 what-
ever.

[11]

LOUISIANA “BEER Sean nile

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; where-
as 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 Depart-
ment 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 improve-
ment 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.

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ee OUISIANA BEEF CATTLE

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 authori-
ties 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 dis-
tributed 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 1s
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

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LOUISIANA BEEF CAT Lik

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 perma-
nent 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.

The market today requires quality, and experience
has proved that the greatest profit comes through
producing quality.

The day of the inferior, lightweight animal, which
was marketed at two to three and one-half years old,
has passed.

The requirement now is for high-grade, one-year-
old stock, weighing an average of 1,000 pounds.

This stock can be produced in Louisiana under
organized methods, at a cost of 4% cents per pound,
delivered at the market, and will bring a price of 10
cents per pound.

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LOUrSTANA BEEF CATTLE

Prior to the Civil War the best talent in America
was devoted to agricultural pursuits, which offered
the greatest opportunity for making large wealth—
as wealth was counted in those days.

Afterward came the manufacturing era, which
attracted the genius of the country and brought about
the perfection of methods and combinations in almost
every known line, with the result that no longer is there
any general field of opportunity therein.

Another era has now arrived, which again focuses
the minds of thinking men upon the greatest of all
problems—supplying the human race with food
because of the imperative need of increasing the
world’s food supply, and because of the large profit
therein.

In the United States today, the production of live
stock is the greatest field of opportunity open to men
of brains and capital; and it is, above all, the one
industry that now attracts the genius of men of large
affairs, and the great aggregations of capital.

In 1895 the average price of beef cattle in the
principal markets of this country was $4.40 per
hundredweight; in 1900, it had increased to $5.80; in
1907 the average was $7.60; in 1910, $8.85; in I9QI1I,
$9.35; in 1912, $10.25; in 1915, $11.60; and in I916,
about $11.90 per hundredweight.

The foregoing market prices tell the story of the
cattle industry from a financial standpoint.

The following prices paid in 1901 and in 1916 for
prize-winning exhibition beeves—at the International
Live Stock Exposition held annually in Chicago, at
the Union Stock Yards—well illustrate the trend of
the cattle market:

In 1901, the Grand Champion carload of fat cattle
was two-year-old stock, weighing an average of 1,497
pounds, and sold in the auction ring at $12 per
hundredweight.

LOUISIANA BEEF CAT Tek

In 1916, the Grand Champion carload of fat cattle
was one-year-old stock, weighing an average of 1,146
pounds, and sold in the auction ring at $28 per
hundredweight.

In 1901, the Grand Champion Steer was two years
old, weighed 1,600 pounds, and sold in the auction
ring at 50 cents per pound.

In 1916, the Grand Champion Steer was one year
old, weighed 1,120 pounds, and sold in the auction
ring at $1.75 per pound.

The following top prices were paid in the auction
ring of the Exposition for ‘‘show cattle’ of various
weights: :

Per Hundred-

Cattle Weighing Price in weight

goo to 1050 pounds.......... I9OI $ 8.70
00610 1050, pounds... 12.24 1916 17.75
TO50/to 1200 pounds. .....). 4 IQOI 9.50
1O50-t6, 1200 pounds: .... 222.2 1916 28.00
120041350 pounds :... 144 —: I9OI 8.75
12003t0°1250 pounds. ... 4. yar 1916 20.00
1350, to1500:pounds..... «2/hee: IQOI 12.00
1250%t0;1500 pounds... ... 25: 1916 18.50
1500 to 1900 pounds.......... IQOI 9.30
1500'to 1900 pounds: 2..,...274% 1916 15.75

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