All three groups of settlers were stock-keepers rather than agriculturalists. The Deans brothers, on the plains, were certainly best situated for agriculture, but even though one of their early crops of two or yielded at the rate of 60 to 70 bushels an acre, markets for grain were too far off and transport too expensive to justify them in growing more than they needed for their own use. As stock-farmers, however, they were well established by February 1844, then having 76 cattle, three horses and 50 sheep.