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Show ,ASituatioiiJ (j.MNAUCimrpi r Los Angeles Union Stock Yards, July 17 J. I. Thompson, livestock! specialist at California Polytech-1 nic, San Luis Obispo, California, J in a recent article for FFA mem- bers throughout the state, express-; ed the thought that beys planning' to feed steers this summer should ; approximate commercial condi-1 tions as nearly as possible. This is sound advice, because in many cases, the FFA or 4-H member who feeds steers for livestock shows often learns how to produce a fancy shew animal that can win, but he doesn't know how to successfully suc-cessfully fatten steers on a commercial com-mercial basis. "Nurse cows" are widely used to keep the bloom on show steers. Obviously, it is utterly ut-terly impractical for the commercial commer-cial feeder to use nurse cows. Also, Al-so, show requirements demand an animal that is usually more thickly covered than is desirable for the market, either from the feeder or the buyer's standpoint. The longer long-er an animal is on feed, the more costly are the grains, so that a long feeding period is generally not practical except for show. The object of our agricultural education programs should be to prepare our youth for making a better living on our farms and ranches. The value of boy's feeding feed-ing a calf or two each year is the knowledge he will gain from feeding, feed-ing, rather than the few dollars i he may earn in premiums and l labor income. The boy who has : fed a steer for six months or more and has used a nurse cow, may j produce an animal that can win, but it is probable that he does not know what he could expect to do in commercial cattle feeding. Or! the other hand, the boy feeding a steer for about 90 days on a ration similar to that used by commercial feeders will know the cost of gain, amount of gain, and profit he might expect in feeding cattle for a living. The west offers great possibi-; possibi-; lities in cattle feeding, and it is important that our youth be educated edu-cated in the principles and scientific scien-tific cattle feeding. This can be accomplished ac-complished best by putting things as nearly as possible on a basis that the boys can follow after they are out of school. M |