650 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE • 



wishes to milk cows tliis method is the one recommended as one that 

 is bringing success to many engaged in the business. 



If labor is scarce and no dairjang is desired why, the baby beef method 

 is the one to follow. As good a grade of beef cows as can be obtained, 

 mated with a good pure bred beef sire of some one of the beef breeds 

 will produce calves suitable for making into baby beef. These calves, 

 dropped in the spring are allowed to follow the cows during the sum- 

 mer and fed some grain besides, either in creeps or in troughs in sepa- 

 rate pens. When weaned they are gotten on full feed of grain, such 

 as corn and oats with some oil meal or cotton seed meal, and roughage 

 in which clover or alfalfa and corn silage plays the largest part. The 

 calves are made to weigh around 1,000 to 1,150 pounds at from fifteen 

 to eighteen months of age and where right methods of feeding have 

 been practiced, and good stock has been used they can be counted on 

 for a reasonable profit even on land worth from $200 to $300 per acre. 

 This method of beef production demands less labor, but rather more 

 judgment in the selection of sires and the feeding of the calves, because 

 the payment of all feed bills and profits must come from the animals 

 marketed for beef. 



ALFALFA MANAGEMENT IN IOWA. 



(Bulletin No. 137, Agricultural Experiment Station, Iowa State College 

 of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.) 



SUMMARY. 



1. Though the total acreage of alfalfa in Iowa is still comparatively 

 small, it is being grown with considerable success in all parts of the state. 



2. Considering every acre of alfalfa in the state, the average yield in 

 1909 was 2.85 tons per acre and in 1910 it was 2.7 tons. 



3. The average money value of the product of each acre of alfalfa in 

 1909 and '10, was $22.80, and $31.32 as compared with a value of $16.75 

 and $15.91 for winter wheat and $17.65 and $14.32 for corn. 



4. After deducting the cost of growing each crop, the profit from the 

 average acre of alfalfa in 1909 to 1910 was $14.01, as compared with a 

 net profit of but $3.17 for corn and $4.33 for winter wheat. 



5. Alfalfa surpasses all our other farm crops in feeding value. Each 

 acre of alfalfa has averaged a production of 2.6 times as much protein 

 as red clover; 2.75 times as much as corn and 4 times as much as oats. 



6. As a pasture for hogs, alfalfa has shown a greater profit than any 

 other crop. 



7. Alfalfa is one of the best crops we can grow, as an aid in the main- 

 tenance of soil fertility, each acre adding to the farm each year, over 

 twice as much nitrogen and organic matter as red clover. 



8. Alfalfa seedings iu Iowa have been maintained for over twenty 

 years and on one field the alfalfa has persisted for over thirty-five years. 



9. Of 1,016 alfalfa seedings reported from every part of the state, 

 only 12.7 per cent were classed as failures. 



