Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1918 — Shall We Kill the Calf? [ARTICLE]

Shall We Kill the Calf?

By. J. OGDEN ARMOUR.

Chairman Food, Fuel and Conservation

Committee. Illinois State Council of Defense

There is a calf problem in thia country and it has not been solved by the pleft to the American housewife to stop buying veal. Nor would • law stopping the butchering of calves present the solution. More calves were slaughtered during the past year than any previous year. Thousands upon thousands of young animals capable of being developed into good beef at a profit were vealed. Millions of pounds of meat were thereby wasted. Whether the waste was actual or theoretical, this fact stands out and stares us in the face: The present world meat shortage ynight have been considerably alleviated had a wiser policy in the handling of calves prevailed during the past years. <, There are two general kinds of calves and they require totally different treatment. There is no excuse for the slaughter of beef calves and there is no justification for the maturing of all? dairy calves. The problem is to raise all beef calves to maturity and to prevent the waste of food by extended feeding of excess dairy calves. It is a waste of food to raise dairy calves that are not to be kept for dairy purposes. There is just as much need for slaughtering excess dairy calves when they reach the veal age as there is for encouraging the farmers to mature their beef calves. It is difficult to discuss calves without touching on baby beef. Baby beef is economic from every angle. A great many of the beef calves which were sent to the Fort Worth and Kansas City markets during the past year were of the type that would pay if matured as baby beef. They average around three hundred pounds, and in the hands of capable farmers who had the necessary feed available, they could have been made into eight hundred to one thousand pound meat animals before they were two years old and at less cost than three years olds, because young animals will make flesh out of a greater proportion of their feed than will older animals.