44 Western Live-stock Management 



thirty months will rarely weigh 1000 pounds or be fat 

 enough for beef, and hence must either be taken to 

 some other country or carried over another year. Of 

 course more hay would make the steer larger but most 

 of the range districts are already raising all the hay they 

 can and feeding it all. The very same country, how- 

 ever, when put under fence, will produce enough feed to 

 cause the larger part of the two-year-olds to become fat 

 and to weigh over 1000 pounds. On the open range, even 

 where grass is very abundant, the cattle will remain all 

 the season where they were first turned out and eat the 

 grass into the ground, although there may be fine feed a 

 mile or two away. They may be driven on to the good 

 grass but unless held there by a fence will soon return to 

 the bare ground and half starve rather than change 

 their habits. Cattle, to do well, should be put into new 

 pastures at least two or three times during the season. 

 When this is done and some care is given to the grass, 

 the- steers will mature approximately one year earlier 

 and be better cattle, but even this is far from yearling 

 beef or baby beef. 



The reader should bear in mind that in indicating the 

 ages of cattle, an animal born in the spring of the year is 

 called a calf until the following spring, at which time he 

 is called a yearling. Beginning with the second spring, 

 he is called a two-year-old. Calves dropped m the late 

 fall and winter are grouped with calves dropped the fol- 

 lowing spring except that they are designated as "early" 

 calves. They are called calves until the second spring 

 when they are called "long" yearlings. Along in the 

 winter these early calves will still be called "early" calves, 

 although they are actually past twelve months of age. 

 A year later they will be called "long yearlings," although 



