SOME ASTONISHING
BUTTER FIGURES
FOR CONSIDERATION
The dairy industry of Nebraska is in
its infancy. A dozen years ago there
were a few creameries scattered over the
state. To these creameries the farmers
hauled their milk, which was skimmed
and then the farmers hauled the skimmed,
milk back to the farm. Today there are
40,000 hand separators in Nebraska,
skimming the milk from 535,000 milch
cows. This cream is hauled to the nearest
assembling point and there shipped by
rail to creameries.
The largest creamery company in the
world has its headquarters in Lincoln,
Nebraska, and the largest butter market
in the world is Omaha, Nebraska. In
1910 30,000,000 pounds of butter were
shiped from Nebraska railroad stations.
The total butter production of the state
during 1910 was over 37,000,000 pounds,
worth upward of $9,000,000.
If Nebraska's 1910 output of butter
were packed in pound Gartons, and these
cartons stacked up end on end, it would
make a column of butter 2,851 miles high.
The possibilities of dairying in Nebraska
are practically unlimited, and despite the
seemingly immense proportions that the
industry has already attained, the in
dustry is yet in its infancy. The hand sep
arator, the silo, scientific feeding and
thorough knowledge of buttermaking are
combining to make Nebraska the lead
ing dairying state of the Union. The
State Agricultural Schools at Lincoln
maintains a dairying department that is
teaching the farm boys and the farm
girls of Nebraska how to produce the best
butter, and as these graduates of the
school go back to their farm homes they
become centers from which radiate
knowledge worth millions of dollars an
nually to Nebraska. The hand separator
has not only lessened the work of dairy
ing but has added immensely toitsprofits.
Nebraska today offers more opportunities
to the dairyman than any other state.
Merely as an indication of the im
mensity of the butter traffic in Nebraska,
a few weeks ago the Beatrice Creamery
Co., of Lincoln, contracted to supply a
butter brokerage firm in the east with
5,000,000 pounds of butter, subject to
call in daily shipments of from 10,000
to 50,000 pounds. And the creamery
company booked the order merely as an
incident of its daily business.
AN ALFALFA EXPERT.
Baron A. Rogdestvensky, a Russian
expert on grasses and grains, does not
believe that the western ranchman gets
the best results out of feeding alfalfa,
basing this belief on an extensive western
tour of obesrvation.
"The Western rancher feeds his alfalfa
too soo after cutting," said the baron yes
terday. "Alfalfa should be stacked and
allowed to rest for nine months before it
is fed as it takes that length of time for
it to ferment. I am well aware the Colo
rado and Nebraska ranchman feeds his
alfalfa when it is green, and rarely does
be allow it to rest in the stack for a few
months, and the result is that he does not
secure the best results.
"Colorado has the most ideal climate in
the world for growing mixed hay, which
is a composite of timothy and gramma
grass. This grass is now being raised in
large quantities by Colonel Robert Ober
felder of Sidney, Nebraska, on his great
ranch at Lodgepole, Neb., near the Colo
rado line. Colonel Oberfelder is raising
this mixed hay after years of study and
he has found in it more nutriment for
horses than any, and I heartily indorse it.
"I am in the United States for the Rus
sian government and am making a spe
cial study of grasses for feeding and fat
tening livestock. I have been through
Kansas and Nebraska and have finished
in Colorado and I am now on my way to
Utah and the Northwest."
St R. M'KELVIE.
Mr. McKelvie, ex-president of the Lin
coln Ad Club and President of the Ne
braska Publicity League, is also business
manager of the Nebraska Farmer, one of
the great farm publications of the world.
He is a busy man, but never too busy to
boost for Nebraska and the west. He was
an influential member of the Nebraska
legislature in 1911.
SOUTH OMAHA'S
UNION STOCKYARD
INDUSTRY IS IMMENSE
The Union Stock Yards of South Om
aha, Nebraska, were opened for business
in August. 1881. There was no So. Omaha
then. The yards were established before
there was any town, and the year before
the site of the stock yards was a corn
field. Today South. Omaha is the third
largest live stock center in the United
States, and her packing industry is the
third largest in the world. It is impos
sible for the human mind to comprehend
the total volume of business transacted
on the South Omaha live stock market
in the twenty-seven years that the Union
Stock Yards Co. has been doing business.
One may but gasp with astonishment as
one reads the figures. In twenty-seven
years the receipts of stock at South Om
aha have been as follows :
Cattle, 20,022,926; hogs, 45,460,576;
sheep, 26,225,189 ; horses and mules, 603,
741. Total receipts, 92,312,432 head.
As before remarked, the human mind
can not grasp such immense totals. Per
haps, however, some idea of what all this
means may be grasped by reducing them
to a common denominator so to speak.
Let us make up this total of live stock in
to trainloads. The average number of
steers to the carload is 27. It would
take 741,590 cars to carry to market the
total cattle receipts of the Union Stock
Yards at South Omaha. The average
number of hogs to the car is 65. It would
require 697,855 cars to transport the
hogs, and 262,251 single deck cars to haul
the sheep. It would require 29,251 cars
to haul the horses and mules. The total
receipts of the Union Stock Yards Co.
at South Omaha during twenty-seven
years filled 1,830,974 cars. This would
make a train 13,871 miles long long
enough to reach more than one-half way
around the globe.
The growth of the business of the Un
ion Stock Yards Co. at South Omaha
has been little short of phenomenal. The
capacity of the yards may be realized
from a knowledge of the fact that on Oc
tober 10, 1910 there were received Slid
cared for. at the wards 63,714 head of
sheep. On September 5, 1910, the yards
received and cared for 15,663 head of cat
tle, and on June 20, 1906, the yards re
ceived and cared for 21,501 head of hogs.
In one week the yards have handled 62,
164 head of cattle, 119,518 head of hogs,
211,816 head of sheep. During the week
ending August 31, 1910, 4,079 cars of
live stock were handled.
The officers of the Union Stock Yards
Co., limited, of Omaha, are: President,
R. J. Dunham; vice-president, J. D.
Creighton; secretary-treasurer, J. C.
Sharp; manager, E. Buckingham.