Evening star., 1945-06-19
Cattle Surplus Fails
To End Meat Famine;
Ranchers Fear Ruin
(Second OF a Series.)
BY RAY SPRIGLE.

II square miles across new MEXICO.
Bell vaqueros will sweat it out in
the dust of the branding grounds
and the smoke of the branding fires
for the next 40 or so days. When
they have finished, Bell will have
stamped its iron on more than
5000 Hereford calves. Some years
the roundup brands close to 10000
calves. Besides having the Bel
turned inLo their flanks, the calves
will be vaccinated against black
leg, and will be dehorned. Then
they'll be on their way to become
beefsteaks. But they won't hit your
dining room table for a year.
This June-as 1t has every June
for nearly hundred years-the old
chuck wagon rolled out of head
quarters. In the wake of the chuck
wagon rumbles the equally ancient
hoodlum wagon laden with proven
der and water casks and feed for
horses and men. In the chuck
wagon ride the bed roofs Of the
branding crew. For Bell still works
cattle in the way of the old West.
Only concessions to luxury are the
pup tents that will keep off the rain,
If there Is any rain. For this South
west range country sure needs rain
right now and needs it bad.
Twenty cowboys make up the
branding crew.
Rounlup Described.
Boss of the roundup is Mark
Woods, hard-riding foreman of the
outfit, veteran of % years service
with the Bell. This year again Juan
Maldeonado Is horse wrangler on
the roundup with 200 top COW
horses in his remuda, part of the
herd of 800 that keep Bell cowboys
on the move. He'll herd them along
the 200 or more miles the outfit will
cover before it gets back to bunk
house and headquarters corrals. At
night he throws them into the
legendary rope corral that holds
them as securely as would an eight
foot fence. Each cowboy has 10 or
IL horses in his string He'll wear
down at least three day.
| When the trail-worn hands and
the remuda come down out of the
canyon breaks with the calf brand
ing done, they'll not have long to
wait before they start out behind
the chuck and hoodlum wagons
again. This time it will be the fall
roundup, when the cattle are gath
cred for shipment beginning in Sep
tember.
The crews will be out for two
months. When the roundup is over,
Bell will have gathered in its hold
ing pastures 10000 beef cattle,
mostly calves weighing 325 to 425
pounds, some yearling steers and
the worn-out bulls and cows that
have come to the end of the trail
Bell, great as it is, is just one Of
the ranches that stretch from Texas
to California and north through
Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, the
Dakotas to the Canadian border.
Bell, of course is one of the biggest,
second probably only to the King
ranch in Texas. Bell covers nearly
10000 acres Once it boasted
three-qHarteFse of a million acres,
comprised by the Montoya and Baca
location grants from the Republic
of Mexico to old Don Pablo Montoya
who probably never even saw his
broad acres. 1t is owned now by the
Red River Co., controlled by East
ern stockholders, most of them from
New England ,s,-''''s.es r<r So
$4,000 Cattle on Range.
At the peak, after the spring calf
drop, Bell will carry $4,000 cattle on
it's range. Each year it markets
10000 head.
And right now, it appears. is as
good place as any to get some fig
ures into the record You don't
have to like them, but you'll take
them.
Bells 24,O00 beef cattle, big and
little, are fraction of the 81, ,348 900
beef cattle reported by the Agricul-
ture Department on the ranges and
feed lots west of the Mississippi as
of January l this year.
Incidentally, the nearly $4,000 900
cattle in the United States in this
season Of meat famine aren't by any
means all beef cattle. About half
of them are dairy cattle. The 1945
count for all cattle is 81,760, ,000-an
all-time peak except for last year,
when this years figures were topped
by 600, 900, mere / per cent.
OF these, 1922 900 are beef cattle
and 40.538 900 are dairy cattle. But
don't for moment overlook the fact
that dairy cattle numbers very en-
phatically enter into the beef pic
ture.
Millions of dairy cattle go to
slaughter every year-the wornout
cows and bulls, the nonfertile heif-
ers and more millions of bull calves.
So it's fair enough and accurate
enough to deal with the total cattle
population of nearly 80 ,000, 900 when
you're talking about meat.
And that 80 1000, 900 cattle, while 1t
isn't enough apparently to put beef
on your table, is 100000 over the
1880 to 1899 average and 10000, 900
over the 1941 cattle population. And
on beef cattle alone, this years popu-
lation is 100000 over the nine
year average up to 1899.
Those are the figures that, while
they mean no meat to you, are a
nightmare to the cattleman. If the
war ends suddenly or the demand
drops before that 10000, 600 excess is
liquidated, banks all over the west
are going to find themselves in the
cattle business and a lot of ranch
ers are going to be broke anyway
that's the way the cattleman have
it figured out.
So much for the figures for now
There1l be more. But tomorrow
let's get back to our beefsteak on
the hoof at the Bell.
| (Copyriaht. 104H hv NoYth m erinap Ns~,s.