Timberland Found to be Good Cow Fattener
October 18, 1945
Definite evidence that timber pasture will put as much beef on a cow as meadows was presented to Lassen county stockmen Monday at the Burgess Springs Experimental Station.
Remaining to be answered is the question of how to keep the cow on the hill feed, according to A. L. Hormay, who is the director of the feeding experiment conducted by the California Forest Ranger Experiment Station in cooperation with the university extension service.
The test this year largely repeated and confirmed last year’s results. Pierce McClelland supplied 45 yearling heifers, and these were divided into three groups of 15. One was run in the timber; one on meadow land and one on a combination of the two. The timber group were one week behind those on the meadow.
T. S. Brown, county farm agent, described the method of selecting the heifers, and described how the poorer grade animals surprisingly had gained equally with the better ones.
There are several likely answers to the range problem, Hormay and Phil Lord of the Grazing Service say. With the meadows being overgrazed, there should be a system set up for resting some meadows for a year to give the choice grasses a chance to recuperate.
Fences seem the most likely solution of the timber feed problem. Possibly it will be necessary to fence entire allotment areas and divide the meadows from timber. Although electric fence has not been tried here, it holds some promise as an economical method.
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