Utah State University Faculty Honor Lectures
The Faculty Association, Utah State Agricultural College
It has been estimated that about 728 million acres or about 76 percent of the entire land area in the West is used for grazing (Stoddard and Smith 1956). In Utah about 93 percent of the land area or 48,900,000 acres is considered range land (Reuss and Blanch 1951). Although some of this range land is forested, a large area of it can be used only for grazing. Therefore, range livestock production is an important segment of western agriculture.
Before 19'00 most of the animals in the West grazed on the range all year. However, irrigation crop production has expanded and there have been a greater number of animals fed in farmlots for at least part of the winter period.
Cook, C. Wayne, "Range Liverstock Nutrition and its Importance in the Intermountain Region" (1956). USU Faculty Honor Lectures. Paper 39.