4 BULLETIN 573, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
TABLE I.—Live stock on farms on the Minidoka Reclamation Project in 1916. 
[ 
Item. Jan. 1. | Dec. 31. | Increase. 
Per cent 
HOrs@s- o-oo is2, 25 92 See h-S28 22 PEPER SoZ EE --=s se eeneaseet eee 6,557 7,174 9.5 
Dairy cattle: -=--- - Bee Sk OE AB Rete OM HO ee OWS VN et oe Ee a ae 6, 902 7,314 6.0 
Beeteattiles: 2) ses ia! Sie cas se ae roe eee ee cee CEPR Tee re: 1, 220 2, 304 89.0 
A BW o)eeof = A Sap I ete eee See Waly oS ea Pence ee SEN Ss ee OE NI aS 42’ 933 23, 610 —46.2 
Shegp: ioe eee A i! ao leben oie eet ae. eee e Clea ie eee 16,748 | 21,029 24.0 
All kinds of live stock are proving profitable on the project, and 
sheep are becoming particularly popular. The high altitude and the 
dry climate are well adapted to the production of sheep, which in 
this section have been remarkably free from internal parasites and 
diseases. Sheep have been found useful in checking the growth of 
weeds on ditch banks and in fence rows, and they are also relatively 
easy to care for, especially during the irrigation season when the 
farmers are busy with other work. 
HISTORY AND PRESENT STATUS OF THE SHEEP INDUSTRY ON THE 
_  MINIDOKA PROJECT. 
RELATIONSHIP OF FARM SHEEP PRODUCTION TO THE RANGE SHEEP INDUSTRY. 
In the early years of the development of the Minidoka project 
sheep were kept on very few farms. As the project produced large 
quantities of alfalfa hay and was situated in the midst of extensive 
grazing areas, it soon became the winter feeding ground of large 
numbers of range stock, chiefly sheep. .The number of sheep win- 
tered on the project during recent years, has varied from 60,000 to 
195,000. Permanent headquarters for range sheepmen have been 
established on a number of farms, where lambing sheds have been 
built and large quantities of hay fed. The range sheep are used 
extensively in cleaning up hay and grain fields after harvest, as shown 
in figure 1. 
For a long time there was a belief that irrigation farmers could 
not compete with the men on the ranges in the production of either 
wool or mutton. The fallacy of this belief, however, has long been 
shown by successful farm sheep producers. Because of the hazards 
of the range sheep business and of the difficulties resulting from 
settlement by dry farmers of areas formerly used as grazing lands, 
the rangemen in many sections are coming to favor sheep produc- 
tion on farms. As the difficulties of range sheep production increase 
and with increasing demands for wool and mutton, the possibilities 
for producing sheep on irrigated farms should become increasingly 
attractive. 
Under certain conditions, particularly where irrigated pastures 
have not been successfully developed, the ewes from several differ- 
ent farms are sometimes combined into a cooperative band and sent 
. 
a ae = 
