Gunnison news-champion., 1918-12-27
By Geerxe Frederic Stxa&toa n u
County CeatlemaA:

AA8sAAAB Ab1C b8Akkc G1RclIGk1CGs n6tG
in Gunnison county, with unlimit-
ed water for irrigation. Il would
seem that It u merely . matter
Of study and experience to develop
j1st e good pastures - the world
Evidently other stpclmeA IN
the west are trying out the mat
ter, and with Considerable success.
The results recorded in the fol-
lowing article are % interesting
and applicable to our own stock
region that News-C Champion 10
impelled 70 publish the article
entire.
It takes forty acres Of good average
range and forest reserve in the north
ern range states to feed one bce1
steer to market condition each year
The returns, at present quotations
would be about sixty dollars. But Il
has lately been discovered that in the
irrigated sections Of those states the
same amount Of land, sown to good
grass, will feed into as good condi-
tion eighty such cattle, giving returns
at the same rate per steer Of forty.
eight hundred dollars.
cept the annual forest permits; the
irrigated farm lands cost from sixty
to three hundred dollars an acre.
To range eighty cattle would re-
quire 5000 acres Of free range, now
practically impossible to secure, as all
such range is taken up. To farm pas
ture the same number requires forty
acres, which is perfectly easy to Sc
cure, and on easy payments.
Those are the conditions Of the
great beef-stock industry Of the Far
West. But there are plenty Of trim
mings and indications Of much more
in the near future.
Much has been written about range
work-the cows and the cowboys; the
exciting round-ups; the picturesque
camps and the long, dreary, tedious
market trails. With it all the i'm
preston is gained that the cost Of
caring for great herds Of range stock
is about like the cost Of the range it's
elf-very trifiing per head.
Be that as 1t may, the new dis
covery is that it costs much more
for labor in keeping up hundred
head of steers on four thousand acres
Of range than for keeping up the same
number on fifty acres Of pasture. At
least two men are constantly on the
job with range cattle, hunting strays,
rescuing calves from gulches or mines,
driving of predatory animals, driving
to and from water, and keeping q keen
lookout for other brands coming onto
their range. Twice . year extra men
have to be brought in to drive the wild
range cattle from winter to summer
range and wise versa, and the calf
branding roundup requires more men.
Against that, on the pasture there
is only the work Of irrigating, usually
every two weeks, taking . man two
or three days II the land is rough or
rolling; less than that II it II nat.
Another condition Of range grazing
Is the great loss Of cattle and calves
by coyotes and wolves-by strays and
deaths in bad country. These losses
are almost unknown in the pasture
herd. Every range man asserts, and
the Forest Rangers corroborste the
assertion, that the annual loss to
range stock from those causes IL new
er less than fifteen per cent-often
is twenty-five.
In addition, winters come with dead
ly certainty, il 1t irregular intervals,
when deep SHOWS cover the feed and
make 1t impossible to drive the cattle
out or to haul feed in to them. Such
was the winter Of 1916-19l7, when
thirty per cent Of the range cattle
Of Wyoming, Northern Idaho and in
Montana rerished from storm and
starvation.
There's none Of that ON the farm
pasture. Everything is under the
cattlemen's control. He may be short
Of winter feed. but he is within the
circle Of civilization and can buy sup
plies, which is never nearly 80 bad
as losing his stock by starvation. II
he loses one head by predatory ami
mails or strays the fault is largely his
own.
Eight years ago the University Of
Idaho began experimenting on pas
ture for stock at the Gooding substa-
tion. J. s. Welch was the superin-
tendent and for some years his efforts
were confined to tests Of all grasses
and mixtures Of grasses to determine
which were the most practical and
profitable for irrigation practice, for
rotation with other crops and for
feeding sheep and cattle. Then he
put some stock on the pastures and
recorded the results. he gave me the
story Of several Of the tests:
"Our soil ct the station Is pretty
much the same as all farm land in
Southern Idaho medium clay loan
with clay sub-soil. On that land the