OCR Text |
Show Feed Conditions Are Said To Be Best In Years Comparing this years desert range conditions with those of the past three years, Dr. George Stewart, Stew-art, senior ecologist of the inter-mountain inter-mountain forest and range experiment experi-ment station this week predicted a 100 per cent improvement in this winter's feed supply on desert ranges. He attributed the improvement to controlled grazing and to beneficial bene-ficial storms during the past summer. sum-mer. Dr. Stewart advised stockmen stock-men that as a resf It of better conditions con-ditions there is an opportunity, for them to "stabilize their economic conditions, reduce their expenses and prevent sudden and severe loses that come from poor ranges." Nearly 1,000,000 sheep are being moved from the central Utah ranges to the desert ranges in western Utah, Dr. Stewart said. Generally, they will find the range and feed supply greater by far than in the last three years, he said, but will also discover that from 25 to 50 per cent of the range has been so badly depleted in the past by overgrazing that, despite controlled grazing and beneficial storms, it will not produce good forage. "For the first time in the history of the western desert, range management man-agement can be put into operation opera-tion on a large scale," Dr. Stewart declared, pointing out that under the direction of the experiment station west of Milford, a part of thj range there that, was in poor condition in 1933, was fenced and by three years of management was returned to good productivity. It is revealed by averages of several years, Dr. Stewart said, that on good ranges, the lamb crop is 84 lambs per 100 ewes and that winter sheep losses are only ZV2 per cent. On poor ranges the lamb crop is 57 lambs per 100 ewes and the sheep losses are 15 per cent. |