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M ~ ~ grown for the Coors Distillery at Golden, Colorad~, and the grain that ~~does not meet malting requirements is an excellent feed for fattening cattle. Dairy products are shipped to Delta and Grand Junction f@r further processing. Transcontinental U.S. Highway 50 extends through most of the Uncompahgre subbaSin and U.S. Highway 550 extends to the south through Ouray County. A branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad traverses the subbaSin from Ridgway to Delta. Transportation facilities are very good. Relationship Between Irrigated Lands and Rangelands Most of the cattle and sheep ranchers are dependent upon national forest lands and national land reserves for their dry range. Forest lands are the mast important to cattlemen and the majority of those who have permits run the same number of beef cows for their breeding herd as they have permitted ~ber on the national forest. Sheep allotments provide eight times as maby animal-unit months of grazing from the national land reserve as from forest lands. Even though the sheepmen have their ranch headquarters in the Uncompahgre subbasin, many of them winter graze their sheep on the desert in western Colorado and eastern Utah. For this reason the irrigated lands and rangelands of the subbasin complement each other to a lesser extent for sheep feed than they do for cattle feed. Sheep numbers are dHJ:icultto obtain and the amount of feed furnished them by the irrigated land fluctuates so greatly from year to year that a direct: relationship between irrig;ited and rangeland is practically impossible to establish. Comparison oJ Acreage Irrigated and Water Supply Water supply refers to the total annual water resource of the subbasin rather than the direct seasonal supply needed for irrigated land Taylor Park Reservoir supplies late-season water to about 70 percent of the irrigated acreage of the subbasin and most of the subbaSin receives late- season -water. However, for comparative purposes acreage irrigated was collated with water supply. Two ~onsecutive 7-year periods, 1943-49 and 1950-56, were selected for com~ parison. Acreage irrigated in 1950-56 averaged 93 percent of the 1943-49 perion, while water supply in 1950-56 averaged 84 percent of the 1943-49 period (combine table 31 and figure 5). There were slightly greater re- lative annual fluctuation in water supply than in acreage irrigated, but a close relationship existed between them. Acreages of small grains, potatoes, hay, fruit, and vegetables were smaller in 1950-56 than in 1943-49. Acreage of irrigated pasture was larger while acreages of corn arid sugar beets remained about the same (table 31). - 82 -