- Grass Into Beefsteak,
Theo Lampe grew up on the Lampe Ranch in northwest Greenwood County. In June of 1927, when he wrote this article, he was associated with the Lee Live Stock Commission Company in Kansas City.
“Chances are you have never heard of a beefsteak factory, yet such a factory exists-at least it is much like a factory, so far as output is concerned, although it is minus the whir of industrial machinery.
“The Flint Hills region of Kansas and Oklahoma- that’s the beefsteak factory herein under discussion. Approximately 10,000 cars of cattle valued at about $20,000,000 moved from the southwestern range country to what is known as the long grass country in the Flint Hills during the past thirty days. Few people realize what this enormous movement means.
“For every two loads of stock cattle placed on bluestem grass in the spring there will be three loads of fleshy feeders of beef steers shipped to market or sold to the corn belt feeder buyer in September and October. Kansas City receives an average of over $1,000,000 worth of live stock each week day or over half a million head of livestock every month.
“The heavy runs are in the fall of the year and receipts consist largely of cattle fattened on the bluegrass pastures of Kansas and Oklahoma. There is no way to make good beef as cheaply and as quickly as that made upon what is known as the long grass or bluestem in the limestone country of Oklahoma and Kansas, known as the Flint Hills grazing district. Gains are made on this grass almost as rapidly as in the feedlot on full feed. Under normal conditions grown cattle will make a gain of over two pounds per day on this wonderful grass at a cost of about one-third of what it costs to put one on in the feedlot.
“The large cattle owners of the southwestern range country realize that beef cattle can be made on this long grass at a cost of 3 cents per pound, or less, and therefore, every spring move their cattle to long grass in order to fatten them for the packer, or the corn belt feeder buyer who wants fleshy steers.
“Some of the larger owners of cattle place as many as 5,000 to 10,000 per year in Kansas and Oklahoma. This week, Mr. Elliott Cowden of Midland, Texas, shipped 2,300 head from Odessa, Texas to Rosalia, Kansas, all in one shipment, consisting of fifty cars and valued at over $100,000. These cattle were placed on the T.G. Matking and William Mercer ranches in pastures containing over 8,000 acres of the finest bluestem. Yearlings take about three acres of grass per head, while two- or four-year-old steers require four to five acres per head.
“The Flint Hills are known for their fine, never- failing springs. Very few pastures have to depend on ponds or wind mills. The Flint Hills comprise a district of about a dozen counties. The territory is about fifty miles wide and 150 miles long, extending from the Osage of Oklahoma to Wabaunsee county, Kansas on the Kaw River.
“The chemical analysis of this wonderful grass has never explained its miraculous fattening properties. Nature has balanced a ration in this grass better than any human mind has been able to conceive. It has just the right percentage of lime, mineral matter, carbohydrates and protein to get the very best results at a minimum of consumption. This explains why gains on this grass are as rapid as cattle placed on full feed.
“Cattle are placed on grass from the 10th day of April to the 14th day of May and are moved to market fat off the grass July 1st to October 15th, according to the conditions of the animal when placed on the grass.
“These hills have been a life saver to the range men of the Southwest in times of drought. When cattle were dying for water and food in the range grass country, they always have the assurance of saving their herds by moving them to the Flint Hills of Oklahoma and Kansas where in the driest years there is always grass and water enough for them to live on.”
Even though this article was written almost a hundred years ago and the modes of moving cattle have changed and the length of time the cattle are on the grass has shortened, there is one thing that stays constant, and that is the anticipation in the spring by people in Greenwood County to see the green grass and cattle on God’s gift that we call the Flint Hills.
