!uly, 1933] 



Roughage Production in New Hampshire 



alone, and with the available labor in mind the combination could be 

 grown with less extra hired labor than hay alone. The available labor 

 would work more total hours, but the peak requirements for labor 

 would be less. 



7° 



30 



28 



26 



2^ 



22 



20 



18 



IG 



H 



12 



10 



8 



6 



4 



2 



Fig. 3. Percentage distribution of labor on hay and oats hay. 



As shown in Table 7 the cash out-of-pocket costs in producing silage 

 are not large. On those farms raising corn for silage, 10.8 quarts of 

 seed costing $1.57 were used per acre. In addition $5.31 was paid for 

 312 pounds of fertilizer, and $2.30 was the cash outlay for gas, oil and 

 repairs for tractor operation up to harvesting, or $9.18 total cash out- 

 lay in growing costs per acre. 



Twine cost $.62 per acre, gas and oil for silo-filling $1.02 and mis- 

 cellaneous costs, knives, parts, repairs, etc., $.19, or a total harvesting 

 cost of $1.83 per acre. The total cash costs for raising and harvesting 

 were $11.01 per acre, or $.94 per ton exclusive of labor, taxes and in- 

 surance. This is approximately $1.00 cash outlay per ton of silage. 



The situation can best be studied from the effects on income in the 

 case of a particular farm. With 50 acres of tillage land devoted to 

 the raising of hay only for the dairy, this study indicates that it would 

 be possible to maintain a herd of 24.5 cows. It would require 565 

 hours of labor to harvest this area in hay, and either extra hired labor 

 would be necessary at harvest or a poorer quality of hay would result 

 from a harvest season long enough to permit the regular labor to handle 

 it. 



With silage in the cropping system the labor required for the care 

 of the cows would be adequate to handle the roughage production and 

 harvest, but with hay alone some extra labor would have to be hired. 

 This extra labor cost would be somewhat less than the additional cash 



