The Oklahoma Farmer-Stockman (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 29, No. 24, Ed. 1 Monday, December 25, 1916 Page: 15 of 24
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TOO OKLAHOMA P A n H C R-OTO CK M AH
A Tonont Farmor and Sovon Covo
(Continued From SVtre One)
have paid one-half of the money on an
80-acre farm which Elswick bought for
$2500 This has been done in the last
three years
Here is how it was done:
Cows— and Nothing Else
Three years ago or early in 1914 this
cow-man moved from southern Okla-
homa to Noble countv He had run a
dairy selling whole milk By hard work
he had accumulated the following prop-
erty which he brought with him: Three
horses 24 head of cows and calves a few
farming tools and household goods He
had no money
The first thing he did after arriving
fin the land of his choice was to borrow
52y to feed those cows The farm
thatlic found to rent is the one I have
described It would take a brave man
to tackle that farm but it was about all
that Elswick could get at that time
Elswick’s plan was to raise all the feed
in the summer and once a week in the
winter He cannot supply the demand
for his butter
The butter is molded into pound prints
wrapped in parchmentpaper and put into
filain cartons On the farm he rented he
ound a well with but little water in it
In this well he kept his cream before
churning and the butter after it was
made and before delivering it to town
With the well he bought only 50 cents
worth of ice a week which was used
only in cooling the wash water for the
butter The well he found would keep
the cream at the right temperature for
churning during even the hottest weather
Elswick keeps Jerseys That is he
owns them they keep him From his
average of seven head milked all the
time which includes heifers and strip-
pers his butter sales have been 1500
pounds a year bringing $500 a year
When Elswick started with cows in
the southern part of Oklahoma he had
The Female Increase in Elswick’s Herd Has Paid Half the Purchase Price of a New
Farm in Two Years
for his cows feed it to his cows i and
earn his money through the sale of '
ter hnd calves
The first year 1914 dry wertlK1'
stepped in — no crops The second year
1915 there was too much rain Crops
were washed out covered up and beaten
down This year if it wasn’t one thing
it was another There were the green
bugs the chinch bugs the hail and the
dry weather The work he put on his
crops these years was almost wasted
In summing up his three years’ expe-
rience he says “The butter from the
cows and the skim milk when fed to
chickens and a few hogs have paid for
all feed bought and all other farm and
family expenses The money from the
heifer calves raised and sold is what I
have saved All bull calves are sold or
killed for home meat as soon as they
are old enough”
At the end of the first two years Els-
wick had a sale Mostly at this public
sale but some at private sale he sold
18 head of cows and heifers for $1165
The 18 head were the female increase
from his cows during that time
Then he bought an 80-acre farm
Since this sale last February his herd
has increased still more but here is his
plan: “I am not going to sell another
cow or heifer for two more veprs At
that time I’ll have another safe and ex-
pect to sell enough stuff to finish paying
for my farm”
And he will do it He has rented a
much better farm near the farm he
bought and will work both '
A Select Butter Trade
All the milk from Elswick’s cows Is
separated on the farm and Is made into
butter there He has a 35-gallon churn
run by a two-horsepower engine The
buttermilk is sold in the town nearby as
well as some cream occasionally
He gets 30 cents a pound for his butter
during the summer months and 35 cents
a pound during the winter months He
has received this price for the last three
years All his butter goes to private
curt' triers and is delivered twice a week
feed for his cows and will thus cut down
the big feed bill that has been his largest
expense for the last three years This
should largely increase his net income
“It is cows for me" said Elswick “If
it had not been for the cows I suspect
that the folks would have had to send
for us But with them we have been able
to pull through A cow is a man’s best
friend She will pay for her feed her
care and some more If you want money
all you have to do is to tell the banker
that you have some milk cows You will
get the money
“Tell the folks that If a man has the
money to buy two cows why buy just
one good cow’’— C R
grades By buving a few registered cows
he has worked up until now he has all
registered cows And they are not what
you would call registered scrubs either
Every heifer that comes fresh is put on
test to see how much butter she will
make He has set a standard of 5 per
cent milk and a total production of 300
pounds of butter a year for a cow If a
cow shows that she can’t make this
amount she finds another job so far as
Elswick is concerned At the present
time he has no cow or heifer in his herd
that will not test 5 per cent and that
does not promise a production of 300
pounds of butter
No Boarders in This Bunch
When testing his cows he weighs the
milk for three or four days to find out
what the cow’s average daily production
is and then he tests the milk to find
the per centage of fat that the cow produces-
He will test a heifer three or
four times during her first milking pe-
riod to see if she promises to be a paying
cow If she does she U kept and tested
again next year He has his own testing
outfit and there are no loafters on the
job
Elswick said : “I haven’t a cow in my
herd that is not pacing for her care her
feed interest on the investment and some
besides Everyone is a money-maker for
me
He takes the calves away from the
cows as soon as they are born This re-
sults in keeping the cows more contented
than if the calves nursed for a time of
two The calves are given whole milk
until they are 10 days old and then are
put on skim milk Elswick believes in
feeding his calves well and keeps the
skim milk before them until they are
well grown out
This farmer had to make the best of
such improvements as he found on the
farm he rented The farm he bought has
no improvements on it and so he is still
renting He has got along by using many
makeshifts in the place of having what
he wanted and needed With better land
to farm next year he is promised more
Sheep and Their Owners
(Continued from Fi Flv)
the heart of the matter of sheep farming
When these men started in the sheep
business two four and six years ago it
was with some misgivings Each man
was prepared to take some losses : or at
least some small profits the first few
years until he learned the business But
to every man came the surprise that
sheep have the welcome quality of taking
care of themselves and earning money
for their owner at the same time
Getting down to “grass roots" the ex-
perience of P B Nevius over In Roger
Mills county “listens" good As soon as
I asked Nevius for his experience with
his sheep he came at me with these
words : "Sheep pay me more profit for
the money invested and for the feed and
care that I give them than any other
live stock I have on the farm” And he
added as he patted the broad back of a
red steer "There is more money in sheep
than in this kind of live stock although”
he said “red yearlings are pretty good
things to have on the farm”
Two years ago Nevius bought 85 ewes
and 10 wethers for $752 At the end of
the first year he sold wool and ram
lambs for $610 When he valued the
sheep that he had on hand at the
the end of the first year he found that
he had earned over 80 per cent on his
investment He now has 150 head in his
flock a few - being ram lambs of this
year Nevius finds that the lambs when
sold at six' months of age will sell for al-
most as much as a man has to pay for a
ewe The wool will bring enough to pay
for the salable feed that the sheep eat in
a year To him the proposition looks
like earning nearly 100 per cent on his
investment in a year not counting of '
course the time that it takes to care for
them and the risks
Dealing in Old Ewes
Old ewes are a kind of sheep that men
-are-usually advised not to buy This is
not an argument for them just a few
facts J K Hall Custer county about
year and a half ago bought 276 old ewes
for $1135 No one knew the age of the
sheep — the man who sold them wouldn’t
even make a guess He kept the ewes
over the winter on the weeds and waste-
feed about the farm with two acres of
feterita and about 10 tons of poor quality
alfalfa hay both valued at $60 or $70 In
the spring he sold $300 worth of wool
and 62 old ewes for $372 In the fatten-
ing pen he had all wethers that have
been put on the market by now that will
bring him enough to finish paying for
his old ewes
Hall is surprised at the money that his
sheep are earning for him He doesn’t
know whether to believe thatit is a per-
manent thing or not It seems too good
to last But he has faith enough to keep
all the ewe lambs on his farm “I never
had anything to earn me such money on
my farm” was his testimony
150 Per Cent a Year
Talking about a “clean-up” John Price
of Roger Mills county made one with a
bunch of sheep A year and a half ago
he bought 80 head of mixed sheep for
$411 Since that time he has fed them
$100 worth' of marketable feed That
makes the cost total $511 In the year
and a half he has sold the wool 'the
lambs and the original bunch for more
than $1800 That’s about 150 per cent
on the investment for each year These
sheep had the range of a half section of
land Although Price has sold all his
first bunch he has bought 300 head more
Some of this flock he will keep for a
breeding flock on his farm Others Svill
be fattened for the market - -
The Lambs Are Profit
A man who has had a bunch of sheep
on his farm for the last seven years is
' ci3) : 13
R I Simpson living not far from these
other farmers Simpson summed up his
experience with sheep in this manner I
“You ouught to have at least 243 ert)
of land with two pastures one for yen
sheep and one for the other stock WUh
pasture and the waste feed and weeds
around a farm sheep will need very little
feed that could be fed to other stock or
sold The wool from your sheep will pay
for all the feed you nave to give them
The lambs are your clear profit”
A Buach of Pure Breda
A man whose work is going to mesa
much to that part ohthe state is'Jamea
Harris Harris has a good herd of pure
bred Shropshires So far he has been
building up his herd and has not yet be-
gan to realize on his investment How-
ever he is scattering around over that
part of the country some mighty -good
rams for breeding purposes
Then there are to be found in that
neighborhood S J Tippens Grant Hiatt
and others who are tying to sheep as a
means of beating the rains that don't
come and the hot winds that do
Sheep Management
All these men have about the same
system of managing their sheep When
I asked them hpw they -took care of their
sheep I found it so simple a method that
there was nothing much to describe One
of the first things that a man ought tl
have is a pasture that is fenced with
woven wire All of these sheep men
have that It doesn’t take a high fence
to keep sheep in a field but the sheep
men thought that a man ought to have a
30-inch fence with a wire or two on top
of it Such a fence as this will keep out
the coyotes None of these men have
ever lost a sheep from coyotes that tney
know of
A second essential is to have a tight
pen to put the sheep in of nights TThii-
pen must be coyote-tight and dog-tight'
Then when the sheep are put in it they
are safe for the night A covered shed
open to the south is all the shelter that
the sheep need
“Keep salt and'water near your pen' in
which you keep your sheep at'night and
you will never have any trouble in get-
ting them to come up at night” said one’
sheep man “I haven’t a dog with which
to manage my sheep and I don’t need one
They are always at the gate ready to bo
let in at night”
“Another said : “After you have run - ’
your sheep in the pen for a few 'nights
they will always come- up without any
trouble" - '
'The question of dogs hasn’t bothered "
these men to any extent- Only one man
has lost as many as nine head in all the
time he has been in the business 'One -
other man lost one from dogs Every
man must look out for dogs of course"
and see that suspicious characters are
kept at a safe distance When a dog be- -
gins to prowl around a bunch of sheep
the time has come to giye him a good
scare
'
Useful in Wheat Pasture
Pastures that once were being overrun
with weeds are being cleaned up-by-'
sheep While sheep will eat grass at the
same time they will eat the weeds as they -go
along and give a chance for more
grass to grow than they eat For pas-- ‘
turing wheat sheep owners prefer sheep
to cattle' The sheep bite the wheat
blades off instead of pulling them off as
a cow will do Sheep pack the ground
more evenly do not pack it so hard and
scatter the manure better than cattle or
horses
These men make it a practice to breed
their ewes to drop lambs in January or
February The rams are turned with the
ewes about five months before the lambs V-
are exepected to come This producer " -lambs
that will sell on the June market-
or that will hold over and be sold in tha
fall as fat wethers Most of these sheep
are plain “Mexican” sheep In soma
of them the Cotswold Merino and-
Shropshire crosses show up strong Talk
with any of these men who -have a few
sheep and they bring up the question of
getting pure bred rams to raise tha
quality of the flock They are looking
for better blood — C R
Short Course Opens Dec 27
Good roads community welfare horns
curing of meats and poultry raising will
be some of the principal subjects before
the twelfth annual short course for farm-
ers which begins at Stillwater December
27 and closes January 4 There wilt be
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Williams, Carl C. The Oklahoma Farmer-Stockman (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 29, No. 24, Ed. 1 Monday, December 25, 1916, newspaper, December 25, 1916; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc2046585/m1/15/?q=%22new-sou%22: accessed July 16, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.