GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 75 



to raise enough feed on their own land to take care of tlieir normal 

 feeding operations on their farms? 



Secretary Brannan. For their family needs? 



Mr. Andresen. A dairy farmer woidd probably be raising some 

 hogs and a few beef cattle. Do you think he should be permitted to 

 raise enough feed to take care of that livestock? 



Secretary Brannan. He certainlj" shoukl have access to enough 

 feed to have an efficient dairy operation. He may be so situated in 

 a part of the country that it is not economically sound for him to 

 raise corn, for instance. 



Mr. Andresen. Who would make that determination that it is 

 not economicalh^ sound? Would that be made by the Government 

 or would that be made by the farmer himself? 



Secretary Brannan. It is the farmer's decision. The Government 

 makes none of those decisions. 



Mr. Andresen. We will say a farmer has 160 acres of land in the 

 Middle W>st. He has a dairy herd of 25 cattle. He has about 30 

 or 40 hogs. He has probably half a dozen young stock. Do you 

 think he should be permitted to plant that 160 acres to crops that 

 will supply that livestock with feed? 



Secretary Brannan. In my opinion, he should be permitted to do 

 whatever he would like to do with that land. It is his land to do 

 with as he sees fit. 



As to whether he should plant it to corn, perhaps he should seek 

 the advice of some good technicians. 



Mr. Andresen. If he has the land to plant corn on. should he be 

 required to go outside of his own production and buy corn from the 

 commercial corn area? 



Secretary Brannan. He should not be required to do anything 

 that he does not want to do. 



Mr. Andresen. He will be if you put acreage allotments or market- 

 ing quotas into operation. 



Secretary Brannan. Approaching this whole problem from the 

 standpoint of the national interest, if his fellow farmers vote marketing- 

 quotas, that wdl be the case. 



Mr. Andresen. In the case of the farmer I have mentioned, he has 

 two silos on his farm. He will take probably 20 acres of corn to make 

 the silage to fill those two silos. Do you think he should be permitted 

 plant enough corn to fill his silos? 



Secretary Brannan. I find it most difficult to try to answer the 

 question. We start out with the premise that he ought to be allowed 

 to do, and will be allowed to do, as far as you and I have anything to 

 do with it, everything that he wants to do personally. 



In the national interest, it may be necessary, if we are to extend 

 price supports to his type of operation, that he bring his type of opera- 

 tion within the same kind of national pattern that all his neighbors 

 are going to bring theirs into. I am saying that at no time do we tell 

 him what he must do, but I think before we extend the Federal Treas- 

 ury's money to encourage him to do things which are not in the 

 national interest we ought to consider whether or not we will extend 

 them to him. 



Mr. Andresen. Do you extend price support to silage corn? Will 

 you loan money now on green corn with high moisture content that 

 is growing for silage purposes? 



