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 in 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” vearlings. Along in the 
winter these early calves will still be called “earls” calves, 
although they are actually past twelve months of age. 
A year later they will be called “long yearlings,” although 
