24 BULLETIN 728, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the war, and most of them already understand it perfectly. The 

 United States Food Administration has blazoned its slogan "Food 

 •will win the war" from one ocean to the other and from Canada to 

 Mexico ; but most people think only of the crop farmer as the pro- 

 ducer of food, although meat is one of the most important of the 

 foods. No higher kind of loyalty and service can be rendered by 

 stockmen than the use of their experience, equipment, and effort in 

 the production of the maximum quantity of this necessary kind of 

 food. Soldiers can not fight without an abundance of strong food, 

 and food can not be purchased for them, no matter how much money 

 we have, if it is not produced in sufficient quantities. Every cow 

 that dies is herself just so much meat lost, and with her death there 

 ends a continuing stream of meat-producing animals which can not 

 be started flowing again. Hence, it is vitally important to save all 

 animals, but especially the breeding stock. 



But while reasons of this higher type will appeal to stockmen in 

 general, they are by no means the only arguments in favor of saving 

 cows. Experience has shown that it is ordinarily good management 

 to feed range stock a small amount of concentrated feed during ordi- 

 nary years, and especially in seasons of drought and consequent poor 

 range feeds. 



Suppose that in any given year, without additional feed, the loss 

 of breeding cows on the range is 10 per cent, or that out of every 100 

 cows, 10 will die. Suppose the rate of increase is 70 per cent of the 

 breeding cows. 1 If no feeding is done, at the end of the year, out of 

 each 100 cows there will be left 90, and they will have 63 calves. If 

 they are fed well enough to reduce the losses to 2 per cent, there will 

 be 98 cows left, and they will produce. 68 calves. If the cost of the 

 feeding has been the value of 8 cows, the stockman has 5 more calves 

 per 100 cows by the one method than by the other. If the cost has 

 been less than that amount, the difference in his favor is greater. 

 Besides this, his animals are all in better condition. If the calves 

 have been weaned at six months and fed a small amount of concen- 

 trates and the breeding cows and bulls have also been fed, all of the 

 stock are in better condition, the calves bring a better price as year- 

 lings, and the next year's crop is larger and of better quality, because 

 of the physical condition of the breeding stock and also because there 

 will be eight more cows per hundred left in the herd. Stockmen all 

 agree that animals that have once been fed are much tamer and more 

 easily handled than before, and that this is an important factor in 

 all work done with them thereafter. 



All of the above applies to the ordinary or usual conditions. In 

 proportion as the rainfall of any season is below the average, the feed 

 for the next year is bound to be reduced, and after two seasons of 



1 This is the avnriiKc for one woll-managed ranch for a period of 12 years, and it is certainly above the 

 average for the ordinary range. 



