University of California Davis - El Rodeo Yearbook (Davis, CA)

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- Order of Sword and Sandals Members Deming G. McClise 1eorge M. Bogart Prof. Edwin C. Voorhies R. Donald Walters Prof. Elmer H. Hughes Richard B. Barlow Clark J. Burnham James Woodford Herbert E. Henderson Clarence Waltz Frank P. Alexander Francis R. Wilson Frank A. Cleland Robert P. Reynolds Herbert A. Spilman Prof. Samuel 11. Beckett Charles A. Reeves Hi-

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A a... v-...m...v.,w sew WA 1- - t . .-....t.,.,'. ' Livestock As A Fractor In Eliminating Waste In American Agriculture By Osgood S. Lovekin, 25 most important of these functions is the elimination of waste. Some of the wastes of the farm, which animals help to avoid. might be classified, more or less in their order of importance, as follows: Waste of fertility, waste of by-products, waste of labor and capital. and waste of land. The preservation of and addition to the lands original fertility is probably the greatest function of livestock on the farm. To maintain fertility, humus is necessary, which may be obtained from two sources. either crops plowed under, or barnyard manure. By repeated experi- ments, examples of which are the fattening tests of Lawes and Gilbert, it has been shown beyond all doubt that when a crop is fed to animals practically nine-tenths of the essential fertilizing elements of the food reappear in the solid and liquid manure. Because of this fact it, is poor policy to plow under a crop if it can be conveniently fed. Barnyard manure is the most economical producer of humus known. The farmer who has a good supply of it, and who supplements its use with phosphates and nitrates for forcing crops, will always have a fertile farm. This is illustrated in the following example: Thirty-two years ago an Iowa farmer took over a run-down farm, and began buying animals and fattening them for market. Since then he has sold no crops off the place, and has consistently spread the manure produced by the animals, When he bought the farm the corn yield was about a ton and a half to the acre, and the wheat crops were not worth cutting. Today he is getting as high as 95 bushlels of corn and 35 bushels of wheat to the acre. In a survey over a period of years, the Iowa State College has shown that the livestock farms of the State have a much greater hay and grain yield per acre than the strictly grain producing farms. The Thirteenth United States Census on Agriculture also makes the report that in the ten States leading in value of animals sold and slaughtered on the farms. all but two are among the first ten in the value of all protlut-ts. Texas alone, 'oducing States, is in this latter list. Thus we see among the cotton p1 . . that when crops are fed at home. animals overcome waste of fertility by keeping it in the soil. The second important field in utilization of farm by-products. IIVESTOCK HAS MANY functions in the farm plan. and one of the livestockis elimination of waste is the In all manufacturing industries it has been recognized that by-products are of great importance, and often one of the chief sources of profits. The farmer is the only inanufzu-turer that has not come to this realization. antl although much has been done along this line. there is need for a fuller awakening. It is estimated that mil- lions of dollars are being wasted annually in abuses in the use of by- products on American farms. A discussion of three of the most important. l.'-l