YOUNG BEEF.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 13, 29 December 1925, Page 4

YOUNG BEEF.

GROWTH OF A PUBLIC PREDILECTION. It is a. significant fact that. although the Smithfield Club held its first show in 1799. it was not till 1881 that the championship for a beef animal was awarded to one under three years old, and it was exactly a century alter the first show (that is, in 1899) that a cup was awarded for the best animal under two years old. Finally, within the past few years, competition classes have been instituted for beef cattle, under 15 months old. This tendency meets the public demand for prime beef and small joints, the “Daily Mail” declares. It is also in the interests of economy in production, and it is clearly good business for feeders to pay more attention than ever to finishing off stock at an early age. Gain in weight is made more rapidly and more, cheaply by a young animal than by an older one. because more food is required for nitro maintenance in an older animal and less is therefore available for the production of flesh and fat. in feeding for early maturity the aims should be to stimulate growtn (which is largely flesh formation) and fattening at the same time, so that the animal arrives at a suitable stage of size and fatness in the least possible period. For this purpose easily digestible foodsi relatively rich in protein, such as linseed cake, arc necessary. It is, however, equally important that the animal should have inherited the requisite capacity for quick growth. This is inherent in certain breeds and crosses, and if one may judge by the results in the younger classes at Smithfield the crossbreds, usually Aberdeen Angus-Shorthorn crosses, are superior to the pure progeny of either breed in respect of this quality of quick growth. Jt may be doubted whether the feeding of animals for the leading fat stock shows is always, or oven generally, a very profitable proceeding, but the man who rears the best class of stock tor other people to bring out for show doos often derive considerable monetary benefit.