COST OF BEEF PRODUCTION UNDER SEMI-RANGE 
CONDITIONS. 
G. E. MORTON* 
Yearling range-bred steers can be put on the market the spring 
that they are coming two years old, at a weight of from 1000 to 1150 
pounds. The object of this experiment was to secure some information 
concerning the cost of producing fat cattle of that age and weight, 
under modified range conditions, the cattle to be run on native grass 
within fences in summer, and to be winter fed. The writer realizes 
fully the difficulty of securing typical conditions for such an experi¬ 
ment, and does not claim that in this instance either the conditions of 
summer range or the results are typical, but they do furnish actual fig¬ 
ures showing the cost of winter feeding calves and fattening yearlings, 
and showing weights and gains made by calves and yearlings both sum¬ 
mer and winter during two years that were very hard on stock because 
of lack of rainfall. 
The inclosed range, or native grass, upon which the cattle in this 
experiment were run, lies just east of the first range of foothills west 
of Fort Collins, and is occupied mostly by buffalo and gamma grasses. 
These grasses make quite a luxuriant growth in some sections, but 
on this range are very short. In the spring they take a much longer 
time than western wheat grass (blue-stern) to get to a length that 
furnishes grazing for cattle, and they dry up very quickly in mid¬ 
summer under adverse weather conditions. 
On this range about 20 acres per head is needed, with ordinary 
weather conditions, for the summer ranging from May 15th to October 
15th, and if grass is late in the spring, or the summer is unusually dry, 
the stock cannot be run five months on it. As the amount of open 
range needed for cattle in different parts of Coloraodo varies from 10 
acres to 50 acres per head for all-year grazing, with hay feeding on 
most ranges in case of winter storms, it will be seen that the range on 
which these cattle were run is considerably below the average in beef 
carrying capacity. 
The experiment was carried out as follows: Fifteen head of range 
bred, 3 year old, Hereford cows, showing some Shorthorn blood, were 
purchased from Schaefer Bros., of Orchard, Colorado, in April, 1910, 
and were put out upon inclosed range on May 6, 1910. All the cows 
were with calf to a Hereford bull, and the bulk of the calves were drop¬ 
ped from May to July, a few late ones being born in July. 
September 1st, the bull calves were castrated. 
October 20th, the cows and calves were brought in, the calves to be 
winter fed, and the cows to be fattened and sold. This experiment 
does not follow the cows further. The weight of the calves on October 
20th was 4320 pounds for fifteen head, or an average of 288 pounds per 
head, a very light weight. October 20th is about a month earlier than 
the time at which stock is brought in from most summer ranges, except 
high mountain ranges; but the dry season resulted in such scant feed, 
that heavy loss would have resulted from leaving them out longer. 
* Assisted in preparation of data by J. B. McNulty and G. A. Gilbert. 
