The Greeley tribune., 1908-07-22
SHEEP BUSINESS WILL UNDER
GO EVOLUTION SHORTLY
SMALL FLoCKS TO Be FED
Each Farmer to Have Small Bunch
of Feeders to Utilize Product
of the Soil and to
Prevent Great !
Waste !

The loss to the sheep feeders Of
northern Colorado last spring bids
fair to bring about the very condi-
tions in farming and stock feeding.
that the Tribune has several times
urged would have to come here be-
fore the very best results would be
obtained from farming.
Instead of the big feeders. who
feed by the 5000 or 10000 head, or
even up to $4,000 head each. the
farmers who grow the feed are going
to feed small punches of sheep and
lambs, and they are going to make
money not only on the sheep. but
on the feed, and best of all they are
going to keep the fertilizer right ON
the place, and make the land more
valuable each year. A carload or
two of sheep fattened on each farm
here would be financial gain in
every way.
Where the farmers sell their hay,
grain and root crops to the big
feeders they are simly hauling the
nourishment of their soil away where
1t will never come back, and it is
only a question of time when the
soil will be 30 impoverished that 1t
will no longer pay for cultivation.
That has been the experience in Illi-
nois, than which there was never bet
ter soil few years ago. Why
> shouldn't the same be true here?
: On the matter of the farmer sup
planting the big feeder in the sheep
business q recent issue of the Breed
10 h~~ hn F0I 20 -
Prediction that the big feed lot
: is doomed and that sheep and lamb
finishing will gradually be relegated
to the farmers feed lot is made more
plausible by the heavy losses inflict-
ed on extensive operators during the
season just closed. Many of them
make no secret of their determina-
ton not to attempt the feat of find
ing their money where they lost It.
Their losses are unprecedented.
But if the big feeder is disgrun-
tied there is no evidence that the
farmer is discouraged. At the in
ception of the range season there is
a clamor for thin yearllngs and
the trade. With the farmer-feeder
salvage of homegrown feed and
maintenance of fertility of the farm
are the factors and when feed 10
abundant he will buy western stock
regardless of possible or probable
profits. The farmer-feeder will be
satisfied when he has the gain for
his feed and manure for ais profits.
This disposition will determine
the course of the feeder market at
Chicago and Omaha during the sea-
son now opening. Hay is cheap and
grass abundant all over the terri
tory east of the Missouri river.
Feeder trade is opening on basis
of $125 a so per cwt. lower than
last year and at the decline there
will be no lack of demand for all
western sheep and lambs not fit for
the killer. The range breeder will be
disposed to hold back his thin lambs
until late in the season because the
prices are so much lower than last
year and this will be another ele-
ment of strength.
Demand for breeding stock. 80
conspicuous feature of the 1907
market, will be lacking. but every
western wether. yearling and lamb
available for feeding purposes will
find buyer. Where the farmer
feeder fails usually is in his inabilt-
ty or indisposition to make his pro-
duct of standard quality, an art
at which the big operators are
adaptS -