CHAPTER XXIV 

 THE RELATION OF FOOD TO PRODUCTION 



ONE of the questions much discussed by farmers, 

 and which has an important bearing upon the economics 

 of animal husbandry, is the food cost of the various 

 animal products. To illustrate, a herd of cows consumes 

 a certain quantity of food and produces a certain weight 

 of milk, milk solids, cheese, or butter, according to the 

 terms in which we state the production. If the same 

 food is fed to a lot of steers a certain increase in their 

 live weight is secured. There is in each case a relation 

 of quantity between the food and the product. The food 

 cost, that is, the food consumption, involved in growing 

 a pound of beef, is quite unlike the food requirements for 

 producing a pound of pork, a pound of veal, or a pound 

 of eggs. If we consider merely food expenditure, that 

 branch of animal husbandry is most economical of raw 

 materials in which the largest proportion of the food dry 

 substance is converted into some new, useful product, or, 

 differently stated, where the food units bear the lowest 

 ratio to a unit of product. 



507. Food unit defined. In presenting the matter it is 

 necessary to first define our units. Certainly it cannot be a 

 pound of food as eaten. One farmer feeds his cows silage or 

 roots, and grain, with but little hay, while another fattens 

 steers on dry food alone. A comparison of production in 

 the two instances on the basis of the gross weight of food 

 consumed would be absurd, because with the cows the 



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