Show MEAT production IN WESTERN C W falk 1 I c 11 va CATTLE ENTERING BRIDGER NATIONAL FOREST WYOMING prepared by the united states department of agriculture the output of beef and mutton in the range country of the west should slowly increase from now on in the opinion of specialists of the united states department of agriculture who have conducted an exhaustive study of the neat meat situation in ia the united states the chief reason for a decline in recent years the specialists say Is the settlement of public lands and a consequent reduction in range while other causes have contributed to lessened meat production in the west they have been mor ethan offset by rising prices and the greater great er profits in cattle raising as well as by a general agricultural development which has made for winter feeding and pasturing on cultivated crops the prediction that this decrease hereafter will give way to an increase Is based upon the belief that the mount amount of live stock on farms and homesteads will be greater in the fu ure pure that the stock ranges in the national forests will continue to improve that the carrying capacity of the stock ranges on the public domain may aay be increased by legal regulation and finally that high prices of range animals and better methods will result in a more efficient utilization of the available forage or in other words a greater production per unit of forage in 1914 it was estimated that no more than 30 per cent of the new settlers had more live stock than was necessary to supply them with milk and animals the situation in this respect however was changing even then and the movement tor for the production of more impre live stock may be expected to continue because both market and agricultural conditions I 1 sheep grazing in madison national forest montana make this indispensable to really successful farming the change will be gradual it Is said and only a few head of stock will be added to a farm but ultimately and in the aggregate the increase will twill be greater than that which Is likely to be accomplished in any other way the problem for the states and the national government it Is said Is to aid in the change by working out a system which will make such agriculture profitable in addition to this increase in ia the numbers of farm stock there Is little doubt that the carrying capacity of the existing ranges can be greatly enlarged this has been demonstrated in the national forests where improved methods and regulation have increased the capacity of many ranges from 15 to 30 per cent this process should continue for at least ten years more and should result in building up the carrying capacity of the national forests as a whole by perhaps 15 per cent it if similar control could be exercised over the public domain outside of the forests it is estimated that the capacity of these ranges could be increased about 30 per cent about half balf of this would result from the improvement in the range itself after overstocking over stocking and premature grazing were prevented and natural reseed Jog facilitated tile the remainder would follow water development the construction of fences and tile the introduction of methods of handling stock which are out of the question as long as aa the improvement of conditions on the range merely provides an incentive for new men to crowd in and undo by overstocking over stocking whatever good has been accomplished the carrying capacity of these ranges has greatly dimi in the past and under the present system there is no redson reason for supposing that it will increase in the future other factors though of less importance that should tend to increase the future production of live stock are greater economy in the use ot of forage both on the range and on the farm the use of more and higher grade bulls and better management of the breeding animals through the year the last two it Is said offer the possibility of increasing the calf crop 5 or oi 10 per cent and the average weight of 0 a two year old steer perhaps 30 pounds where winter feeding Is practiced it Is believed that a yearling steer will cost approximately 30 and a long two year old 45 in the range sections of the southwest on the other hand the costs may be estimated at from 15 to 19 for a yearling and from 20 to 25 tor for a two year old oid with sheep there is a similar variation in california the cost of producing a lamb is placed at in ID the southwest at and in the th northwest at la in considering these figures it must be remembered that they all may be materially altered by Iner increasing easIng or diminishing the percentages of births in the herds and flocks better methods it is pointed out will almost certainly increase the calf and lamb crops and in this way reduce the cost of production per head in estimating these costs the investigators ti gators charged against the stock the market value in the vicinity of nil all the feed consumed in this way the necessity of considering the money invested in land and equipment wax wa eliminated but on the other hand allowing the stock owner a profit on the feed increases somewhat the estimated cost of producing animals As aa the owner might not get his profit on the teed feed it if he did not raise stock to utilize it the actual profits in stock raising are probably somewhat greater than the difference between the market price of the animals and the reports estimates of the cost of production |