30 BULLETIN 588, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
upon the percentage of tobosa flats which receive flood water. Such 
areas are of higher forage value than the average for this class of 
range as a whole. | 
The mountain range of the Jornada Range Reserve will support 
stock at the rate of approximately 60 acres per head in its present 
stage of development. 
_ All of the foregoing estimates are on the basis of carrying the stock 
through average or slightly less than average years in fairly good 
condition. If loss from starvation is to be eliminated, a small per- 
centage of the poor stock will have to be fed cottonseed cake or 
other feed to supplement range forage. 
INCREASE IN CALF CROP AND IMPROVEMENT IN GRADE OF STOCK. 
From 500 selected cows and 20 bulls, held in pastures away from 
other stock since August, 1915, an 81 per cent calf crop was branded 
in 1916. It is expected that this figure will probably be an average 
one over a period of years. From the remaining cows cf breeding 
age, amounting to 1,522 head run together in one pasture of 74,714 
acres, a 69.2 per cent calf crop was branded. The average calf crop 
for the Reserve was 72 per cent. It is doubtful whether the average 
calf crop on adjoming unfenced range in 1916 reached 60 per cent, 
and this figure is believed to be a high average for the calf crop on 
these ranges for a period of years past. 
A total of approximately 50 pounds of cottonseed cake per head 
was fed to the 500 cows and 20 bulls of the selected breeding herd 
on the Reserve. The work of caring for this herd took half of one 
man’s time. All of the bulls and perhaps 75 per cent of the cows were 
fed cake. To this special care and the fact that they were unmo- 
lested by other stock is attributed the large calf crop. In the herd 
having 1,522 head only 2 per cent of the cows and only 75 per cent 
of the bulls were caked. This and the fact that so many animals 
were run in one large brushy area, making adequate bull service 
difficult, are believed to be largely responsible for the difference of 
11.8 per cent in the calf crop of the two herds. [If so, the extra 
calves in the special herd far more than pay for the extra feed and 
labor. 
The big opportunity for increasing the calf crop is to keep poor 
cows in thrifty condition. This can be done by not overstocking 
the range used by breeding stock and by feeding a small quantity of 
cottonseed cake or other supplemental feed to the cows that need it. 
Indications are that this is a good business proposition. All bulls 
should be fed during the winter and early spring. 
By avoiding overstocking and by using supplemental feed the 
improvement of the average animal should pay, at least in part, for 
the decrease in number of stock and increase in cost of care. The — 
RE ale pen ty apt pga 
