Florida: An Ideal Cattle StateFlorida State Live Stock Association
History
Florida: An Ideal Cattle State
Florida State Live Stock Association
Cattle -- Florida
If the climate of Florida can produce these registered cattle without
help and have them make a favorable comparison with cattle in the great
registered breeding grounds of other parts of America, there is no
reason why beef cattle can not be produced which, in turn, will form a
favorable comparison with those of the great pasture breeding grounds,
which, in turn, are furnishing the feeder cattle for the corn belt.
On Mr. Jackson's place we found both graded Herefords and Shorthorns in
the third generation, with splendid development and quality, and we
found in his registered or pure-bred herd of Shorthorns good quality and
development.
At the home of Mr. Gaitskill we found both pure breds and grades of good
development, and a splendid object lesson in a half-bred cow known as
"Old Blue," her dam one of the primitive Florida cows and her sire a
pure-bred Shorthorn bull. She is what might be called a blue roan, with
the blue almost black. Then we saw her daughters and their daughters,
and I think we saw a fourth generation, but either in this third or
fourth generation, I remarked to Mr. Gaitskill that he could lie a
little about that heifer, as she had absolutely every appearance and all
development of an absolutely pure-bred Shorthorn.
In this same district we learned from Mr. Jackson that graded cattle all
the way from half-breeds up to seven-eighths and in the mixed threes and
fours ages, all by registered bulls, weighed 900 pounds off grass last
fall. As near as I can obtain information, the same ages in the native
Florida steers and under most favorable conditions would probably not
weigh to exceed 600 pounds.
On this same trip Mr. Edwards of McIntosh told me that he got about half
the gain on the native steers that he does from three-quarter-bred
grades, on the same feed.
The foregoing is a practical demonstration that as far as climate,
general feeds and ordinary normal conditions are concerned, graded
cattle thrive in Florida.
It is important that I should have seen them, because I am working on
well defined and demonstrated general principles of breeding and beef
production, and they respond in every way to the foregoing.
From this time on we must reckon with the world's supply of live stock.
Without attempting to go into details, there has been a very material
decrease in it during the past ten years. We know that Europe must be
re-stocked after the war, and that the American supply is freer from
disease than that of any other country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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