12,000 Cattle Roundup—Only 100 Good Enough to Sell
A Yakima rancher returned from the Columbia roundup with a hard tally: a long winter and scarce feed left almost the entire herd unfit for market.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A. J. Splawn returned to Yakima Tuesday from the Columbia, where the usual cattle round-up has just been brought to a close. There were twenty-eight horsemen engaged, with Carlos McDonough captain, and the total number of cattle corralled was in the neighborhood of 12,000 head. Mr. Splawn says that owing to the unusually long winter and the consequent scarcity of feed, range stock are not fattening very rapidly. Out of the 12,000 he was able to find only 100 head that were in a fit condition for market. He has shipped this number to Frye, Bruhn Co., Seattle.
“Out of the 12,000 he was able to find only 100 head that were in a fit condition for market.”
The long winter and feed shortage that left only 100 of 12,000 cattle market-ready is an early record of climate and forage driving herd decisions. Ranchers today still cull and ship according to drought, feed costs and winter kill. The story also shows how a local roundup fed distant urban markets through Seattle commission houses.
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