PASTURING AND SOILING I23 



SOME COMPARISONS 



The Nebraska station reports that in an experiment 

 there it required .71 of an acre to keep a cow for a given 

 time by soiHng, while by pasturing it required 3.63 acres; 

 also that the cows kept on pasture during the experiment 

 actually consumed more grain than those that were soiled. 

 This report further states that while the pastured cows 

 gave more milk each day, the cost of production was 

 greater. By another experiment with cows for a single 

 year it was indicated (Bui. No. 69) "that about twice 

 as much feed was secured from the land when the alfalfa 

 was soiled as when it was pastured. The average daily 

 production of milk and of butterfat was markedly greater 

 when the crop was pastured than when soiled. In one 

 test this amounted to one-third more, but in the other 

 test the difference was not so great. The profits from 

 soiling as compared with pasturing will depend largely 

 on two factors — the price of labor and the value of the 

 land." 



A western Kansas farmer writes that one acre of 

 alfalfa cut daily for soiling maintained as many cows as 

 he was able to keep on a five-acre field used as pasture. 



The Kansas station reported that in an experiment, 

 lasting 144 days, the cows on alfalfa pasture returned an 

 income, less cost of grain fed, of $4.23, while cows soiled 

 on alfalfa cut and fed green returned an income, less the 

 grain fed, of $18.08. This station also reported that a 

 neighboring dairyman maintained ten milch cows for a 

 whole summer, without any grain, on two acres of al- 

 falfa, cut and fed to them fresh three times a day. 



