OCR Text |
Show i perienced in feeding live stock. The investment is less at the outset, feeding feed-ing costs are lower, and lambs are more easily handled than most forms of live stock. The orchardist should give thought to buying his breeding or feeding stock from districts where the sheep do not have too much access ac-cess to browse feeds as they are then less likely to damage trees. It is not good business to attempt to handle too many sheep or lambs in the groves, but rather to hold down the sumber of animals according to the amount of pasture and other feeds available. In this way, the choicest product may be produced at the least expense. The writer will be glad to answer questions "on this subject, or readers may always go to their state agricultural college or farm advisor for reliable information. Plans are now virtually complete for the fourth annual Christmas Live Stock Show, to be held November 30th to December 7th at the L03 Angeles Union Stock Yards. This affair has developed into one of the major national live stock expositions and exhibits of breeding cattle, hogs and sheep, as well as prime fat stock, already are promised from the majority ma-jority of the western states. It gives the stockmen of the Western country a splendid opportunity to learn the latest methods of live stock feeding and also presents a valuable opportunity oppor-tunity to avail themselves as the new blood lines and most valuable types of breeding stock. While it is primarily pri-marily a producers' show, it is also valuable in building up interest of the city residents is what is being done towards improved live stock production to the end that better quality meats may be offered in the retail market. There seems to be a general ten. dency all over the country towards rebuilding the breeding herds of cattle, cat-tle, now that prices have reached levels permitting profitable produc-tios. produc-tios. A splendid sign of the times is the greatly increased demand for pure bred beef bulls, both in range districts and on farms. 1 About 40 per cent of the beet cattle of the United States are produced pro-duced under what are known as "range conditions," and the estimated esti-mated total of range cattle January 1st at 13,170,000 represents a decrease de-crease of around a half million head as compared with three years ago. Texas has the largest number of range cattle of any state in the Union, while California is second with a total of approximately 1,393,-000 1,393,-000 head. Next comes western Nebraska, Ne-braska, then Colorado, then New Mex ico and Montana, western Kansas, Wyoming, western Oklahoma, west, ern South Dakota and Arizona in order. California is the only state showing an increase in numbers of range cattle during recent years, this being due largely to the great increase in population and the resulting re-sulting board demand for meat foods. Arizona's cattle population has declined de-clined from 831,00 in 1926 to 511,000 in 1928, due in large measure to several years of drouth. Many orchardists are planning to handle sheep in their groves. This has been done successfully in the citrus districts of California and Arizona Ari-zona and has also been very successful success-ful in deciduous fruit localities. The carrying out of such a plan not only promises good results to the fruit growers but it provides a more economical eco-nomical distribution of . the surplus of western lambs as compared with shipping them to Eastern markets. Sheep feeding probably represents the most available form of live stock handling for the man who is not ex- |