The Young Farmer: Some Things He Should Know Part 10

(3) In thus acting as machines in manufacturing raw materials into finished products animals convert these coa.r.s.e and bulky materials into those which are much more concentrated, thus making their transportation economically possible. A pound of beef has required food containing ten pounds of dry substance, and a pound of b.u.t.ter has required thirty pounds of dry matter to produce it.

These refined products may be shipped around the world, while the raw materials may not be profitably transported beyond the county in which they are raised. Moreover, the farmer has the profit which comes from manufacturing the raw materials into refined products.

(4) In the production of these finer products much of the essential materials of plant growth are left upon the farm. The experiments of Lawes and Gilbert show conclusively that in fattening animals more than nine pounds out of ten of the essential fertilizing ingredients of the food reappear in the solid and liquid excrements. Prothero says: "Farming in a circle, unlike logic, is a productive process."

The fiscal policy of one of the great nations of the globe is based upon this idea. Everything possible is done by Germany to encourage the keeping of live stock, because the more live stock that is kept, the more productive will be the soil. The larger the crops raised the more people will be required to harvest them and the larger will be the population to recruit the army and navy. The Kaiser and the German scientist recognize that the fighting force of the Empire is related to the number of domestic animals reared. The meat supplies of the people are, therefore, taxed to bring about this end.

(5) The rearing of live stock makes it possible to arrange a better rotation of crops. A five-year and, even better, a six-year rotation, is more effective than a four-year in maintaining the crop-producing power of the soil and enables the farmer to reduce his cost of production. It is possible to keep a larger proportion of the farm in gra.s.s and other forage crops, thus reducing the amount of land plowed annually and at the same time decreasing the exhaustion of the land, provided the forage crops are fed to live stock upon the farm.

There is an old Flemish proverb which reads:

"No gra.s.s, no cattle; No cattle, no manure; No manure, no crops."

The point of this proverb is that good gra.s.s is the basis of good agriculture. Investigations have shown that one may go farther and say that one of the most ready means of increasing the crop-producing power of the soil is by adding fertilizers to gra.s.s land. The large number of plants per acre enables the plants to utilize the fertilizer to the highest degree, and plowing under the resulting dense sod is one of the most effective methods of enriching the soil.

(6) Animals require constant care, thus making possible a more constant use of labor and other capital. The wheat farmer of North Dakota sows his wheat in April and May and harvests it in July and August. He usually threshes it immediately, and is practically without employment for himself, his teams or his men from September until April. On live stock farms the labor employed in the summer in the field is needed in the winter in paddocks and stables.

(7) The management of live stock, including the rearing of poultry and the manipulation of dairy products, may be made to require a higher skill than the production of farm crops as ordinarily practiced. The communities which have given the most attention to dairying and to the rearing and fattening of animals have generally been the most prosperous.

DISADVANTAGES OF KEEPING LIVE STOCK

(1) Keeping live stock increases the capital required to operate a given area of land, especially where animals are kept in connection with the production of hay and grain. Not only must there be capital with which to purchase animals, but usually more is invested in buildings. In a self-contained farm--that is, one which raises sufficient food for the requirements of the live stock--ten dollars an acre may be considered a moderate investment for animals. If, however, the plan is to raise only the coa.r.s.e feed, while the necessary grain as well as other concentrates is largely purchased, a farm may easily carry from $25 to $35 worth of live stock per acre. Lack of capital is one of the most potent influences in preventing a larger production of animals and animal products. Cattle paper, or notes given to secure money for the purchase of fattening animals, is a common bank a.s.set in the feeding districts of the central West.

(2) The very perishable nature of animals entails a great risk in the investment of capital in live stock. Not only the products of a single year, but the growth of a number of years, may be suddenly swept away by disease. This may include the crops of several years, thus destroying capital invested in the production of the crops as well as the capital originally invested in the animals. Many a farmer has seen the gradual acc.u.mulations of years rapidly melt away in the presence of some contagious disease. Tuberculosis in cattle, cholera in hogs and liver rot in sheep are striking examples of diseases that have caused the farmers of this country untold losses.

(3) When an animal has been properly fattened he must be sold. If held for any great length of time, not only is there a constant outlay for food to maintain the animal, but the condition of the animal may actually deteriorate. Hence it is not possible to hold animals for a better market for a long period of time, as is possible in the case of the cereal grains.

(4) Serious losses may occur where profit was expected through a rise in the price of foodstuffs. Scarcity in food supplies, due to an unfavorable season, often compels the stockman to sacrifice animals that he has been raising for two or three years. It is sometimes a.s.serted that, although society suffers from short crops, the farmer is benefited, because the increase in price is greater than the decrease in yield. One year, for example, the decrease in the production of maize was 30%, while the increase in price was 50%. If, therefore, the crop had been sold it would have brought more than the crop of the previous year. The farmers, however, require about 80% of the maize crop in the production of their live stock, so that when there was a decrease of 30% in the yield of maize, many had none to sell, while others had to purchase maize at increased prices or use other crops, such as oats, which they might otherwise have sold. Still others would be compelled to sell, at reduced prices, their partially fattened animals. There is a constant fluctuation in the price of animals and animal products, due to variation in yield and hence in price of food supplies. It requires continual vigilance on the part of the stockman to secure food supplies at such cost as will enable him to secure a profitable return from his animals.

CHAPTER XVI

RETURNS FROM ANIMALS

In any well-considered plan of farm operations it is essential to have some basis for estimating the amount of food required to carry live stock through the year in order to know, on the one hand, what portion of the crops raised are available for sale and, on the other hand, what food supplies must be purchased. A requisite of any successful farm enterprise is a proper consideration of these market conditions.

While domestic animals consume a variety of foods, and each cla.s.s of animals has special food requirements, the basis of calculation of the needed supplies is fortunately not complicated. Twenty-five pounds of dry matter are required per day for each thousand pounds of live weight of horses, cattle and sheep, and for swine about 40 pounds for each thousand pounds of live weight. It may be more convenient to calculate the food requirement of swine on the basis of increase in live weight, allowing five pounds of dry matter for each pound of increase. Some further details as to food requirements will be found in the paragraphs which follow.

COST OF PRODUCING HOGS

Pigs possess two characteristics which make them unique among domestic animals. They consume concentrated and easily digested foods only, and they produce nothing but meat, fat and bristles. Cattle furnish milk and hides; sheep, wool, hides and sometimes milk; fowls furnish eggs and feathers. On account of their limited range of usefulness and because of the high value of much of the food consumed, it would not be possible to rear swine economically were it not for their prolificacy and the fact that they are employed largely as scavengers.

Many cattle are fattened without direct profit. The indirect profit comes from the sale of the pigs which have followed the cattle. It is customary to mature one hog with little or no additional food while fattening two steers. In many well-known ways, pigs consume products which would otherwise be wasted. This is especially true in the more densely settled sections of the world.

On account of their prolificacy, the returns obtained for the amount of capital invested is greater than in the case of sheep, cattle or horses. Ten sows, worth $100 to $150, are sufficient to produce 100 pigs; 75 to 80 ewes, worth from $300 to $500, are required to produce an equal number of lambs; 110 cows, worth $4,500 to $6,000, to produce 100 calves; and 200 mares, worth from $20,000 to $30,000, to guarantee 100 foals. To put the matter in another way, the capital invested in swine may be reproduced in the offspring ten times in one year; the capital invested in horses not more than once in five years.

In general, 500 pounds of maize will produce 100 pounds of pork, which is equivalent to eleven pounds of pork from a bushel. Since hogs are so largely produced from maize, the price of maize and the price of pork are very closely related. For example, if maize is worth fifty cents a bushel, the grain required to produce a pound of increase in live weight will cost about 5 cents; if 40 cents a bushel, 4 cents; if 30 cents a bushel, 3 cents; and so on.

COST OF PRODUCING SHEEP

In the cla.s.sic investigations by Lawes and Gilbert, food containing 100 pounds of dry matter produced a live-weight increase of nine pounds in steers and 11 pounds in sheep. At the Wisconsin station, sheep required less food than steers per pound of gain. During rapid fattening of sheep 500 pounds of clover hay and 400 pounds of maize may produce 100 pounds of increase in live weight. While swine require a less weight of food for a pound of increase than sheep, on account of the more digestible character of the food eaten, yet the Wisconsin station found that the expense of producing a pound of increase was less in sheep on account of the less expensive character of the food.

MEAT AND MILK PRODUCTION COMPARED

A summary of the investigations of American experiment stations shows that 100 pounds of dry matter produced ten pounds of increase in live weight of steers. The same quant.i.ty of food when fed to milch cows produced 74 pounds of milk, plus one pound of increase in live weight.

This 74 pounds of milk contained 3-1/4 pounds of fat. In general, therefore, the food required to produce a pound of b.u.t.ter fat is about three times that required to produce a pound of increase in steers.

COST OF STEER FEEDING

The fattening of beef animals is largely conducted by farmers who make a specialty of it. This is particularly true in the so-called corn belt. Into this region are gathered the two and three-year-old and, more rarely, yearling steers, many of which have been reared in Texas or in the mountain states where the supply of maize is not sufficiently ample to fatten them. These are placed in paddocks with open sheds, where they are fed from 90 to 150 days, after which they are sent to market for slaughter. The food consists usually of maize fodder, maize stover, hay, maize (usually in the ear), a little bran, linseed or cottonseed oil meal. The ration per day during rapid fattening is about 20 pounds of dry matter per 1,000 pounds of live weight, containing 16 pounds of digestible substance, of which 1.25 to 1.75 is digestible protein. One hundred pounds of increase may be obtained under average conditions from 150 pounds stover, 325 pounds of hay, 775 pounds of maize and 75 pounds of cottonseed meal.

Great variations will occur, however, depending upon the condition of the animals at the beginning of the feeding period and the degree of fatness or finish to which the animals are brought before placing upon the market. In any case, the food consumed will cost more than the value of the increase. The only way that steers can be profitably fattened is by increasing the value per pound of the animal. Thus an 800-pound steer may be purchased at five cents per pound, or $40.

After feeding, say 150 days, he may weigh 1,100 pounds, when to bring a profitable return he should sell for 6 cents a pound, or $65. This is a gain of $25, eight of which came from the increase in value of the original 800 pounds. Usually steers cannot be fattened profitably unless there is an increase of at least three-quarters of a cent per pound in the value of the animals and then, as previously explained, only in connection with the hogs which follow them.

COST OF PRODUCING MILK AND b.u.t.tER FAT

Well-selected and properly fed cows may produce 240 pounds of b.u.t.ter fat annually. The amount of fat obtained will depend upon the richness of the milk. Thus, 8,000 pounds of 3% milk, 6,000 pounds of 4% milk, or a trifle less than 5,000 pounds of 5% milk, will give this quant.i.ty of b.u.t.ter fat. These are customary returns from different types of cows.

If each cow in the herd is dry for six weeks each year the daily average of the cows actually milked will be three-quarters of a pound of b.u.t.ter fat. There are herds which make an average of nine-tenths of a pound of b.u.t.ter fat per day, but to secure this result requires superior cattle, careful feeding and more than ordinary care.

The standard ration for milch cows weighing from 1,000 to 1,200 pounds is 25 pounds of dry matter, two-thirds of which is digestible. The ration should contain not less than two pounds of digestible protein.

In ordinary practice, about ten pounds of the dry matter of the ration is obtained from maize silage, nine pounds from hay and about six pounds from grain or other concentrates. In general, this is obtained by feeding 35 pounds of maize silage, ten pounds of hay and seven to eight pounds of concentrates. The silage may be estimated at one-tenth to one-eighth of a cent a pound, hay at from one-fourth to one-half cent and concentrates at from three-quarters to one and one-quarter cents per pound, varying, of course, with the different sections of the country. The amount of food needed will vary somewhat with the size of the animals, but will depend much more largely upon the amount of milk and b.u.t.ter fat given. While maintaining substantially the general average just given for the whole herd, it is the practice of careful feeders to vary the amount of concentrates fed to each individual in accordance with the amount of b.u.t.ter fat or milk given.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. Gabriel Hiester, Harrisburg, Pa., graduate of the Pennsylvania State College, for many years trustee of the college and president of the State Horticultural Society, had a beautiful farm home near Harrisburg. During the first twenty years in bearing his orchard, of which one-fourth the trees were unprofitable varieties, returned an average of $80 per acre with apples selling at 60 cents to $1 per bushel.

Mr. Hiester believed, with a proper selection of varieties and a favorable location, that any well-managed orchard can be made to do much better.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Dr. J. H. Funk, Boyertown, Pa., graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, 1865, farmers' inst.i.tute lecturer, former state pomologist, has 50 acres of apples and peaches. Returns from his plantings begun in 1896 are so phenomenal that he is afraid to permit the publication of his profits. It is known, however, that he has sold $5,000 each of peaches and apples in one year.]

COST OF MAINTAINING WORK HORSES

At the Minnesota station, the total cost of feeding and maintaining a farm work horse for one year was estimated to be from $75 to $90, of which about $20 was charged for interest and depreciation. On the basis of 3.3 hours as the length of the working day, the cost per horse per hour was estimated to be 7-1/2 cents. At the Ohio state university, it was found that four horses weighing about 1,400 pounds were chosen to perform 2,185 hours of labor during one year, while under like conditions four horses, weighing about 200 pounds less, worked on an average but 1,641 hours each. For each secular day, therefore, the former worked about 7-1/2 hours, while the latter were employed but five and one-half hours. The cost of food was estimated at $54; cost of shoeing, repairs of harness and stable supplies at $6.50; and the cost of feeding, grooming and cleaning of stables at $23.50, or a total cost of $84 per year. Nothing was charged for interest or depreciation, but the expense of feeding and caring for three colts was included in the estimates given. The annual expense of maintaining a horse was practically the same in both states, but the cost per hour of labor performed was less because of the possibility of employing the horses at productive labor a larger portion of the time. Too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the need of planning a farm organization which will give continuous employment to horses as well as to men in order to realize the most profitable returns. An industrial system that makes it necessary to maintain work animals three days in order to secure one day's work falls far short of an ideal.

CHAPTER XVII

FARM LABOR

The problem of farm labor demands thoughtful and frank consideration.

Since work is an essential element in the production of all wealth, it follows that every industry has its labor problem. The adjustment of labor to the production of the various forms of wealth must ever const.i.tute one of the most important problems in any organized society. It is often remarked that the labor problem is the chief difficulty in farming. In a certain sense this is true, since work is a primary element in the production of agricultural as well as all other wealth. It is not true, however, that the problem of labor is more difficult or more intricate than that of other industries. In fact, that problem is less delicate than in some other occupations, because farming is less industrialized.

It is not possible to settle once for all the problem of labor for any occupation, since changing conditions will give rise to new questions or new phases of the old problem. Moreover, the problem of labor on the farm will grow more difficult as farming becomes more specialized and as the methods of production become more complex.

However, the labor problem on the farm is different from that in the manufacturing industries or in trade and transportation. This chapter will not concern itself with an attempt to settle the farm labor problem, but will undertake to state the character of some of the differences between it and other forms of labor and to discuss some of the changes in recent years.