The Young Farmer: Some Things He Should Know

by Thomas Forsyth Hunt

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 class 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 classic 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 quantity 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 butter 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 BUTTER FAT

Well-selected and properly fed cows may produce 240 pounds of butter 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 quantity of butter 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 butter fat. There are herds which make an average of nine-tenths of a pound of butter 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 butter 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 butter fat or milk given.

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.

Dr. J. H. Funk, Boyertown, Pa., graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, 1865, farmers’ institute 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.