PART I 
CARRYING RANGE STEERS THROUGH THE WINTER 
W. L. CARLYLE and G. E. MORTON 
INTRODUCTION 
Cattlemen are, at variance in their opinions as to whether range 
steers should be winter fed as calves and as yearlings, when they 
are to be carried over for fattening as two-year-olds. And an equal 
divergence of opinion exists as to whether it is wise to carry steers to 
that age before finishing. The experiment detailed in PART I of this 
bulletin was outlined by Prof. W. L. Carlyle in 1905 and carried out 
under his direction until its completion in 1908. Professor J. A. 
McLean and the writer, who succeeded him, carried out the winter 
feeding work with the steers. The writer is the only one of these 
three at hand at the publication of the bulletin, and as he did not see 
the first two years of the experiments, he finds it difficult to make, as 
thorough a writ-up as he would like. The data presented is suf¬ 
ficient, however, to indicate the answers to one or two questions con¬ 
cerning winter feeding of store steers. 
PLAN OF THE EXPERIMENT 
In the fall 1905, 20 head of representative steer calves were 
secured from the herds of W. H. Gerdts, Cope, Colo.; E. M. Ammons, 
Little,ton, Colo., and I. B. Griffith, New Castle, Colo. Three calves 
were Hereford grades, and were brought to the College for winter 
feeding. A like number of representative steers of the same crop 
were brought to the College from these herds in the fall of 1906, 
and again a like number in the fall of 1907, with the exception that 
the five head from Mr. Griffith’s herd were not secured in 1907, 
because of shipping difficulties. 
Each summer the steers, which had been winter fed at the 
College, were turned out upon enclosed range, owned by the College 
and located on the foot hills west of Fort Collins. 
In this way some of the steers were winter fed as calves, as 
yearlings and as two-year-olds; some were fed as yearlings and as 
two-year-olds; and some fed only as two-year-olds. 
Again, some of the steers fed as calves were finished off as 
yearlings, while others were not marketed until they we,re twos. 
The following table shows the weights and gains made by the 
steers each season: 
