Por a herd on the plains, or anywhere that the annual 
losses amounted to ten per cent., a natural herd of three 
hundred head would be composed of : 
Cows. 
Three-year-old heifers 
Two-year-old heifers. 
One-year-old heifers. . 
Three-year-old steers. 
Two-year-old steers. .. 
One-year-old steers... 
Bulls. 
I otal...300 
There would be ninety-six calves dropped during the 
season and thirty-six three-year-old steers for sale in the 
fall with twenty cows. 
It is not to be expected that all herds will be made up of 
exactly these proportions. Even in a natural herd, that is, 
Avdiere all have been raised and none bought, the losses will 
vary from year to year, producing variations from these fig¬ 
ures which represent averages for manyyears on many herds. 
The largest variations in herds are caused by buying in 
young stock, so that the herd has a disproportionately large 
number of steers compared with the cows. Or, the opposite 
condition comes from selling off in a single season more 
than the three-year-old steers. The former is the more 
common condition in the northern part of Colorado where 
many thousand young steers are brought in each year from 
the south and turned onto the ranges. The latter is com¬ 
mon in southern Colorado and especially in New Mexico 
and Texas, where the steers are largely sold at one-year-old 
to go onto the northern ranges. 
The estimate given shows an annual cost, not including 
interest, of about $500 for running a herd of 300 head. The 
yearly sales are about thirty-eight head of three-year-old 
steers and twenty-two farrow cows. The steers should 
bring $30 and the cows $15 per head, or a total income of 
$1,470. Deducting the $500 expenses, leaves net returns of 
$970, or about fifteen per cent, interest on the investment. 
SHIPPING. 
The people of Colorado eat 100,000 head of cattle 
every year. The larger part of these are old cows with a 
liberal sprinkling of barren heifers and a still smaller num¬ 
ber of hay fed steers. Almost no grain fed cattle are con- 
70 
fit 
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