308 ARID AGRICULTURE. 



to each twenty-five to forty cows. The bulls are 

 usually turned with the cows the first week in 

 July and let run with them until the last of No- 

 vember. The calves are mostly dropped in April, 

 at a time when spring feed is getting good. In 

 some sections of the West, where poison weed is 

 bad, the cattle are kept in the fields and fed dur- 

 ing April, until this poison weed gets largo 

 enough so it is beyond being dangerous. Cattle 

 that are turned onto the range are usually 

 rounded up in July, when the calves are branded 

 and the bull calves castrated. 



It has become common practice to turn or 

 sell the stock quite young. The cows should not 

 be allowed to have their first calves before three 

 years of age. The young stock is fed and pushed 

 and the steers are turned usually as long two- 

 year-olds. It does not pay to keep them longer 

 than this if there is sufficient feed to make them 

 of good size. 



The cows should be turned at eight or nine 

 years. In the vicinity of sugar beet factories 

 these old cows are being fed beet tops, pulp and 

 alfalfa hay. Cows will often go on producing 

 calves up to the time they are twelve years old, 

 but the best management turns them young 

 enough so -when they are fed they are salable, 

 and bring enough to pay for fattening. 



The young beaves or feeders are usually sold 

 in November or December. 



It has been common practice for many years 



