Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 21 



soils, which is fully as great as the value of the phosphoric acid, potash, 

 and nitrogen contained in farm manure. 



Saves four-fifths of fertilizing value of crops fed. — When fed to 

 animals, a large proportion (about 80 per cent) of the fertilizing 

 element of the feed is recovered in the excrement. For example, if a 

 ton of com 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 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. 



Purchased feeds increase soil fertility. — 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 cotton- 

 seed meal or wheat bran used for feed gives manure worth, while 

 fresh, $19.20 and $10.19 respectively. 



Farm animals convert crops into products of greater value.^^The 

 live-stock farmer who- fails to conserve and utilize farm manures is 

 surely overlooking a great source of profit. On the other hand, ani- 

 mals should not be regarded merely as fertilizer factories. The 

 manure produced by farm stock, while valuable, is secondary in im- 

 portance to the value of the anim.als themselves. Farm animals are 

 valued primarily for their meat, milk, wool, labor, fats, and hides. 

 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. 



0. E. Baker of the U. S. Bureau of Agricultural Economics states ^ 

 that fully 60 per cent of the crop acreage in the United States, exclu- 

 sive of pasture, is used to produce feed for farm animals, and that 

 fully 80 per cent of the total food and feed produced by all tame and 

 wild vegetation in the United States is consumed by live stock. The 

 latter statement includes cereal crops, improved and unimproved 

 pastures in farms, woodland pastures in farms and national forests, 

 and arid or semi-arid open range land in the West. 



Advantages of live-stock farming summarized: 



1. Live-stock production, properly conducted, is a profitable 

 business. 



lA Graphic Summary of American Agriculture, U. S. Dept. Agr. Yearbook, 

 1921, p. 409. 



