More on India's Sacred Cattle and North American Cattlemen

In a parenthetical statement designed to provide an interpretive context for a 68% calving rate in a district of India, Bennett (CA 8:25 1) has asserted that "under the worst conditions on the North American range of the 1880's, the rate was about 75%." This period included some of the most damaging droughts and severe winters in historic times in the American West. The assertion is in error for the 1880's, as well as for much less unusual weather years, in northeastern Nevada. There in the north central Great Basin, as on the Northern Plains and in portions of the Northwest, a great many cattlemen practiced open-range breeding and calving. Bulls were turned out with the cows on unfenced range, and calves were later dropped in the open without human assistance. Ranchers had no systematic knowledge of which cows had been served, how many were pregnant, or the number of surviving calves until roundup and branding. Thus under this type of management the calculable calving rate is the ratio of calves branded to breeding cows on the range the previous year. The winter of 1889-90 was extremely harsh in northeastern Nevada. According to the 11th U.S. Census, over 40% of the adult cattle died. Many cattlemen claimed 80-90% loss. One rancher who branded 2,700 calves in 1889 had but 25 in 1890. Another branded about 2,700 calves in 1889 and just 225 in 1890. These calving rates had to be considerably below 10%, while that for the entire region (which cannot be calculated because population data lump cows and steers) was certainly well under 75%. Assuming that cows, steers, and calves died in proportional numbers, the rate could not have been over 60% and was probably far less because a higher proportion of calves can be expected to have perished. Since skepticism may be entertained regarding the validity of these figures, it is instructive to examine open-range calving rates for 1937 and 1963 obtained through field studies. An investigation of numerous Elko County ranches in regard to 1937 yielded a mean calving rate of 65% (Carpenter, Clawson, and Fleming 1941:9, 16-17, 26). In 1963 a sample of ranches in northern and northeastern Nevada had a mean calving rate of 76%. Those ranches which calved most of their cows on the open range averaged 69% (Rogers and Helming 1967:18). Both years had nonsevere weather for the region, except for April 1963, which was cold and wet. Clearly, Bennett should have proven the opposite of the point he sought to establish by reference to North America: a 68% calving rate appears to have been normal under open-range conditions.