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

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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

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by-products, grain straw, corn stover and cottonseed meal, will serve to show the many uses to Which such products may be put in 11vestock production. Practical experience as well as experimental work has shown that grain straw and corn stover, combined With concentrates, can be eco- nomically fed to animals. These roughages are used in the fattening rations of practically all farm animals except hogs, and can be used in the winter rations of cattle, horses and sheep. Breeding herds of beef cattle and dry dairy cows can be kept on a ration containing a large amount of roughage, and it can be used, with the addition of some grain, in the rations of flocks of breeding ewes and horses doing light work or no work at all. While not adapted to producing the largest flow of milk, roughage has a valuable place in the rations of dairy cows. Milking cows may eat as much corn stover as they want, if in addition they get some grain, silage, or leguminous hay. For economical results the stover should be shredded, and a little molasses sprinkled over it Will add to its palatability. Oat, barley and wheat straw are other roughages that can be used in much the same proportion as stover. Besides being used for feed, straws and stover are very useful for bedding. Straw soaks up the liquid manure containing many valuable fertilizing elements, Which would be lost were the liquid allowed to escape. Liquid manure and the straw itself are important constituents of barnyard manure. There is still much room for extension in the use of these by-prod- ucts, for in spite of their proven value, much goes to waste. Only about two-thirds of the total annual production of grain straw is being used to best advantage, and at least one-half of the remainder is an absolute loss. Stated in figures, about 79 million tons or 67 per cent of the crop is used annually for livestock production, either as feed or bedding, 7 per cent is sold, 10 per, Cent plowediunder, and 15 per cent burned. If the straw is not acutally used by animals, or turned under, its fertilizing value is lost. Burning in particular almost totally destroys its value, and is practiced chiefly because of custom and ignorance of the value of the straw, to altogether too great an extent, particularly in the Western States. Corn stover is more widely used than straw; of the total annual crop, about 83 per cent or 204 million tons, are used in livestock production, while 10 per cent is plowed under, 3 per cent sold and 4 per cent burned. In this case also, burning results in almost total waste, although it offers an easy and quick way of getting the land cleared for plowing. In the case of cottonseed meal, large quantities have been used in recent years for purposes of direct fertilizations; in 1914 six of the Southern States used 1,000,000 tons in this way. This meal is worth from thirty-five to forty dollars a ton for feeding cattle, and When properly fed, the output of fertilizer is much greater than the output obtained from the meal itself, and farmers get in addition the profits from their livestock. Besides being used for direct fertilization, much cottonseed meal, together With molasses, corn and peanut concentrates, is being exported from the United States. In rations containing roughages large amounts of these concen- trates are and should be used, and their exportation or use as direct fer- 152