Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1921-11-10

| The utilization of the range in the
national forests Of the West for the pro-
duction of wool, beef, mutton and pork
is steadily increasing from year. to
year. Ranchers and stockmen are
manifesting a growing appreciation of
| the advantages afforded by govern
ment pasturage. And in the same de-
gree they are all too frequently neg
| lecting their stock after it is turned
| out on the mountain ranges, state Off
Gals of the United States Department
of Agriculture.
On all open ranges there are many
losses from predatory animals, poison
GUS plants, disease and accidents, and
similar dangers. Unless owners of live
stock campaign intelligently and perse-
veringly against such sources of disas-
ter, their herds and flocks usually suf-
fer mortality of from to per cent
yearly. To illustrate, one ranchman
graZed 700 head of cattle last sum
mer on national forest without a
herder. AS result he lost dozen
head of steers worth $50 each.
Mortality High Last Year.
Last year in forest district 5, which
includes California and western Ne
vada, the total live stock mortality in
IL forests amounted to 1,151 cattle, 5
horses and 5,S40 sheep. The total num-
Der of permittees who used the federal
grazing lands aggregated 1920 They
grazed 234,4 15 cattle and horses, $685.
800 sheep and goats and $500 hogs on
the forest ranges. Two hundred and
seventy-five cattle died of disease; 299
cattle and 1,462 sheep were killed by
eating poisonous plants; 81 cattle, s
horses and 2,745 sheep were killed by
predatory animals, and 1856 cattle and
1853 sheep succumbed to accidents
and miscellaneous causes of death.
This matter of live stock losses on
the government ranges has become of
such Importance that the United States
forest service made detailed survey
of the specific causes of mortality
among live stock in the Stanislaus for
est of California during a recent year
During the period under discussion a
total of SS1 head of live stock out of
the 10000 animals pastured in the for
est lost their lives. The manner in
which these losses were distributed
should be of value to stockmen and
ranchers who are interested in curtail-
ing these losses and who are anxious
to know what the weak points in their
present methods of management are.
The losses among cattle were distrib-
uted as follows:
Under one year old from blackleg,
9S; over one year old from blackleg.
81; calves, loss of mother from lark
spur poisoning, 10; cattle losses from
larkspur, SO; other poisons, 81 !; preda-
tory animals, 20; accident, 80; in calv-
ing, ID; lost, strayed or stolen, "A;
from anthrax, 2; from eating giant
powder from railroad construction
camp, 5; from neck-and-spine disease,
IS; killed by hunters, 2; blind, aged,
crippled and ruptured, 4 /; losses from
contagious abortion, 122; from lack of
proper food and starvation, IA, and
from unknown causes, 337.
The losses from predatory animals
are being checked as rapidly as the
federal agencies for this work are
able to cope with the situation. When
ever the forest rangers note that the
predatory animals are causing heavy
damage, professional hunters are sent
to destroy them. The losses due to
disease and accident and miscellane-
GUS causes could be substantially de-
creased if more herders were employed
by the owners. Under conditions which
obtain on the national forest ranges
one or two herders could handle from
five hundred to a thousand cattle with
out particular difficulty. On the same
scale that it pays to herd sheep on the
government ranges it also is profit
able to herd cattle and, potentially,
permittees probably will come to this
decision of their own accord.
Poisonous plants-and particularly
larkspur--are responsible annually for
large losses of live stock throughout
the western states. There is only one
effective system of Kidding the ranges
of larkspur and that is to grub the
plants out season after season until
finally the range will be free of this
Objectionable growth.
The experiences of certain rancher
whose range abuts one of the Califor-
mia national forests, and who, under
the supervision of the United States
forest service, has been waging win
ming fight against larkspur during the
last four years, are illuminative in this
regard. After careful trial and study
of the control methods and the results,
this stockman is enthusiastic about the
efficiency of the plan and he urges ey-
cry other rancher or stockman who
owns infested range to give the system