4 N. H. Agricultural Experiment Station [Bulletin 302 



The total area in pasture was 2.8 times its open pasture equivalent. 

 The Merrimack County farmers used large areas for pasture amounting 

 to 144 acres per farm, 2.4 times the area in crops. Eighty-eight per 

 cent was non-tillable. However, this was equivalent to only 29 acres 

 of open pasture, or 1.4 acres per cattle unit, slightly less than the aver- 

 age of all farms. Hillsborough County farmers had only 57 acres of 

 pasture per farm or 1.2 acres of open pasture equivalent per cattle unit. 

 Other counties varied between these two extremes. 



Pastures. The carrying capacity of the pastures was only 73 per 

 cent of the total cattle owned. On the other hand, many heifers and 

 dry cows were pastured on rented lands, and many farmers used part 

 of their crop land for green feed to supplement pastures in late sea- 

 son. Meadows were commonly used for grazing in late summer and 

 fall. In Rockingham County, there was a tendency to keep an amount 

 of livestock which would just about utilize available non-tillable pas- 

 ture land, and then to use any surplus crop land for cash crops. 



In general, farmers having more than adequate pasture for their cat- 

 tle did not have proportionately more heifers, thus indicating that the 

 amount of available pasture was not an important factor in determin- 

 ing the method of herd replacement. There were 46 farms which had 

 2.3 or more acres of pasture equivalent for each cattle unit pastured 

 (Table 1). These farmers estimated that their pastures were adequate 

 for 12 per cent more cattle than they actually owned. They had pro- 

 portionately fewer heifers than did those farms with one acre or less 

 of Of en pasture equivalent for each cattle unit pastured. In this latter 

 group the farmers estimated that their pastures were adequate for only 

 38 per cent of their cattle, and yet 20.6 per cent of their herds were 

 heifers compared with 18.3 for all farms. 



Pasture Supplements. If a pasture were fully used in the spring, it 

 would be over-grazed in the fall by the same number of cattle. For 

 this reason farmers tend to keep more livestock than their pastures will 

 carry throughout the season and then in the later months supplement 

 with other feed. About 80 per cent of the farmers in this survey raised 

 green crops for this purpose, and nearly one-third fed dry roughage. 

 All but six farmers fed grain during all or a part of the pasture season, 

 not in all cases because of failing pastures. The amount of grain fed 

 vas 7.1 tons per farm, valued at $197, or 70 per cent of the value per 

 farm of all supplement feeds. Farms which had more than 2.2 acres 

 of open pasture equivalent for each cattle unit pastured fed nearly as 

 much grain, but less than one-fourth as much of roughage and green 

 feeds, as those farms which had one acre or less. There was no gener- 

 al tendency for farmers having more pasture to feed less grain, thus in- 

 dicating the common practice of feeding grain throughout the year. 



THE DAIRY HERDS 



For each farm a detailed inventory at the beginning and end of the 

 year and a r ^eord of all purchases and of all sales of stock were obtained 

 for each kind uf dairy cattle including milk cows, heifers one year old 

 and over, heifers less than one year old, herd bulls and bull calves. A 

 record was also obtained of deaths. Each kind of livestock was classed 



