Gunnison news-champion., 1919-01-17

( the points made are well worth
discussion by our stockmen and
farmers.
"ln all our tests the pastures were
divided and grazed alternately. A
test of dairy cow grazing was made
on one-acre pasture-our tests had
to be made on small acreages. In the
first of four seasons We put in two
cOws-grade Jerseys-and they were
able to eat all the grass. In each of
the other three seasons we used a
third COW part of the time because
there was too much feed. Here are
the yearly results: Length of grazing,
1873 days; pounds of milk per acre,
$3.50; pounds of Dutterfat, 300, all
worth SS7.6A at current prices-a good
return for land that required only
seeding the first year and about five
days work Of one man il1igating dur
ing each Of the succeeding years.
The cows made a substantial gain
in weight during the grazing period
and we could have carried them along
farther for several weeks by a little
additional feeding.
"In another test we put three two
year old Shortholn steers on a one
acre pasture divided into half, and fed
alternately. They did well, and the
next year we put four yearlings on
the same pasture, but that was too
much for one acre and Oh two occa-
sions we had to take them out for
other feed fora short time. We were
very accurate on the weights, going
in and coming out, and the results
showed a production of 1872 pounds of
beef an acre for the pasture season.
At today's Chicago prices, that beef
was worth $106.14.
Perhaps the most impressive picture
of irrigated pasture work, and some
other things, is seen at the Ballantyne
farm near Idaho Falls. The owners
are two sisters, Miss W. L. and Miss
A. Z. Ballantyne, who keep a dairy
herd of 35 Jerseys and manage all
without a man, a boy or a horse on
the place.
The BaIlantyne Sisters Success
Eight years ago they came into pos
session Of the farm-eighty acres
and in the small bunch of mixed
stock was one Jersey heifer. For
several years they hired a man, and
with him cropped the farm, all the
time working up to their objective
an ideal dairy farm, which it now is.
Three years ago they reached that
objective with twenty high-grade Jer-
seys, and they then leased all their
farm except their buildings and fifteen
acres Of irrigated pasture, on which
the herd, now numbering thirty-fve
gets almost its entire summer feed
for six or seven months, an occasional
supplement of any available grain or
mill feed being used if the grazing
looks too thin.
These successful women keep one
young girl to help in the housework
and milking. The rest of the work in
Guiding irrigating the pasture, keep
ing the great barn scrupulously clean,
caring for the calves and young stock,
and marketing, is entirely their own
All their milk, forty to fifty gallons,
and five to six gallons of cream a
day, is sold to the hotels and cafes in
Idaho Falls, three miles distant. One
of the sisters makes the deliveries in
summer and winter with a motor
truck. Six thousand dollars, roughly,
was their income from this source the
| past twelve months, and another thou
sand from calves and culled-out cows,
and their rental from the farm fur
nishes most of the winter feed.
Their barn built three years ago, is
one of the finest in the state, with
stalls for fifty head. 1t has a concrete
| floor, steel stanchions, running water
and an overhead tramway for con-
veying out manure and carrying in
feed. In a closely building is a ten
horsepower gasoline engine, operat-
ing a well pump, feed chopper. and ar
electric lighting generatorwhich lights
the bungalow, barn and other build.
ings.
Pasture is the Rotation
The success of this, the scconc
largest dairy herd in that country, i.
really because of the efficiency anC
economy ascribcd to the irri~atcC
pasture. What the paeture IL all,
Imeans in dollars and c~rts, | did no
learn, but the cash income for tn,
year j a little less than S8.0OO-mor
than $3.50 a month; and if we rouChl,
credit five month Of that to the uae
turing, it means $3.50 for the saaEo-'
production Of ffto~~ c--re. less what
ever is paid for au-'l'ar- food.
The spectacular thing about al thi
is that these women are handling 2
cows on fifteen acres; burin~ their ad
ditional feed and clearing up an in
come which the ranger of 300 steer
or 5000 sheep would by no mean
Sneer at.