Gilpin observer., 1902-07-31
CATTLE AND SHEEP.
Large Profits in Feeding and Stock
Raising In Colorado.

The following extracts from an arti-
Gle by c. o. Sprenger are taken from
Ranch News for July:
One hundred thousand head of cattle
fattened for the beef markets on grain
and alfalfa, or beet pulp and alfalfa,
will be turned out of feed lots in north
ern Colorado annually within the next
five years-provided the farmers of
that section awaken to the great pOssi-
bilities in store for them.
r Three hundred and fifty thousand
lambs and sheep will also be provided
for annually and the irrigated farms
are in a position to yield home
grown grain and farm product that
will furnish an economical and fat
tening feed, together with sugar beet
pulp, that will no longer make the
feeder dependent on the corn crop of
the neighbOring eastern states.
An abundance of water, which by
mans foresight and ingenuity is being
stored, so that early and late crops
may have all the moisture required.
will bring crop yield unparalleled in
any section. The soil is sandy loan,
nurturing and nourishing, and with
the stored waters will yield abundanI-
ly of all the cereals (excepting CORN the
grasses and the tubers. Experiments
on fairly liberal scale have demon
strated these pOssibilities-in fact, the
success of the feeding industry has
been established beyond any doubt
and 1t now only remains for the man
who wants to go into the most profit
able business of the time to either go
into northern Colorado or southern
Wyoming. buy land on which to raise
good cattle for the farmers of Boulder,
Larimer and Weld counties, or buy
land in these counties, raise the feed
under the most bountiful water system
in the state and feed 1t at a surprising
ly good profit to the well-bred cattle
and sheep raised further north.
The great sheep feeding industry of
northern Colorado was started by acci-
dent. 1t was in the winter of 1SS0-90
that William Bennett of Fort Collins
came up from New Mexico with car
load of lambs, intending to run them
on the range In Wyoming. At Fort
Collins he got stranded on account of
tremendously heavy snowstorm.
which blocked the roads. He wintered
the lambs on alfalfa and a little grain.
Tht gain was so great by spring and
they brought such splendid price
that he concluded to follow up the
same procedure next year. He did and
has, in conjunction with his brother,
been winter feeding lambs ever since.
He told others about his success and
they went into the business. Near by
year 1t increased. The number on
feed during the winter of 1S99-1900
reached nearly 100000. Last winter.
because of the high price OF corn. this
number was reduced about fifty per
cent. The prospects for this winter are
that the feed lots will again be filed.
To-day sheep feeding IL the lending
stock industry In northern Colorado. 1t
has proven profitable one year with
another to the man who has studied
the process thoroughly and profited by
his experiences. At the beginning IT
wns thought impossible to fatten
lambs properly for market unless they
were given full corn ration with the
alfalfa. Following out this supp0sitlon
into period when corn advanced to
$1.25 and $1.40 per hundred weight
laid down at the northern feed lots
from Nebraska and Kansas, those
feeders set In their ways finally real
lied that such feed produced no
profit and the wise ones turned their
attention to another method. They
fesd wheat and barley with the alfalfa