20 TYPES AND MARKET CLASSES OF LIVE STOCK 



The keeping of live stock on the farm provides a means 

 of utilizing as feed or bedding much that would otherwise be 

 wasted. This applies to large amounts of roughage such as 

 straw and corn stalks. Meadow aftermath and rough or stony 

 land unsuited for the plow may be grazed, unmarketable soft 

 corn may be fed, and other similar wastes may be converted 

 into profits where live stock is kept. 



Experiments indicate that if animals were kept in stalls or 

 pens throughout the year and the manure carefully saved, the 

 approximate value of the manure produced by each horse or 

 mule would be $27, by each head of cattle $20, by each hog $4, 

 and by each sheep $2. The total fertilizing value of the manure 

 produced in the United States in one year would, therefore, be 

 $2,477,100,000. In this estimate, no account is taken of the 

 value of the manure for improving the mechanical condition 

 and drainage of soils, which is fully as great as the value of the 

 phosphoric acid, potash, and nitrogen contained in farm manure. 



When fed to animals, a large proportion (about 80 per cent.) 

 of the fertilizing element of the feed is recovered in the excre- 

 ment. For example, if a ton of corn is sold off the farm, it 

 removes fertility to the value of $6.56; while if fed to animals, 

 this ton of corn results in manure worth, while fresh, $5 24. If 

 this manure is properly handled and applied to the soil, little 

 of its fertilizing value will be lost. The corresponding figures 

 for one ton of oats are $7.43 and $5.94 respectively, for timothy 

 $5.21 and $4.16, red clover $8.79 and $7.03, alfalfa $8.76 and 

 $7.00, oat straw $3.30 and $2.64, corn silage $1.22 and $0.97, 

 whole milk $1.96 and $1.52. In many instances the best method 

 of increasing the fertility of a farm is to buy feeds which may be 

 fed profitably to the live stock on hand, and then carefully 

 handle and apply the manure produced. For example, a ton 

 of cottonseed meal or wheat bran used for feed gives manure 

 worth, while fresh, $19.20 and $10.19 respectively. 



The live-stock farmer who fails to harvest the manure 

 crop carefully is surely overlooking a great source of profit. 

 On the other hand, animals should not be regarded merely as 

 fertilizer factories. The manure produced by farm stock, while 

 valuable, is secondary in importance to the value of the animals 

 themselves. The stockman converts his crops into animal 

 products of higher value to man, aiming thereby to reap a larger 

 profit than is possible by the grain-farming system, and at the 

 same time he increases the fertility of his land. 



