UTILIZATION OF PASTURES 



By A. T. Semple, formerly associate animal husbandman, Animal Husbandry 

 Division, Bureau of Animal Industry, and T. E. Woodward, senior dairy 

 husbandman, Division of Dairy Cattle Breeding, Feeding, and Management, 

 Bureau of Dairy Industry 



PASTURES COMPARED WITH HARVESTED CROPS IN COST OF FEED 



After the establishment of permanent pastures the labor require- 

 ment is small. In a number of typical cases it varied from 1 to 3 



Figure 11.— A good pasture of mixed grasses and legumes. Such a pasture lessens or eliminates the need 



for supplemental feeds. 



hours of man labor and less than 1 hour of horse labor per acre per 

 year for fence repair and replacement. The principal other labor 

 requirements are for occasional jobs such as the application of fer- 

 tilizers and weed and brush cutting. On many pastures, however, the 

 use of more labor would pay well. Other charges are interest and 

 taxes which are fully as low as on any similar acres of the farm. 

 Although annual and other temporary pastures may cost as much to 

 produce as grain crops, they are harvested by livestock with practically 

 no labor cost. 



In seven districts where studies were made by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture concerning requirements for the produc- 

 tion of market milk, pastm"age furnished nearly one thu-d of the total 

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