﻿COST OF MILK PRODUCTION ON WISCONSIN FARMS. 9 



of which was fed in 1920. The 1920 crop also was made with high- 

 priced labor. The pea silage bought cost about $2.50 per ton, plus 

 the labor of getting it, which, Avhile considerable in amount, was 

 done at odd times. The beets and the pea-vine silage fed were 

 placed on the same basis as corn silage. Silage does not have a 

 market value, but is assigned its value in various ways, sometimes 

 from the price of corn, sometimes from cost of putting it up, some- 

 times from values of some feed which it will replace. Occasionally 

 silage is sold at auction, but the price paid at a sale is not a very 

 good indication of value, depending as it does on the necessities of 

 the bidders and the cost of moving it to the place where it will be 

 fed. Corn fodder has about twice as much dry matter per ton as 

 silage, and nearly twice as much net energy, but is subject to some- 

 what greater waste, and is not highly rated where hay is abundant. 

 If it may be contended that the prices used are too high for home- 

 grown feed, it can hardly be denied that if all the feed needed had 

 been purchased the total feed cost would have exceeded the amount 

 figured. At any rate, such other prices as may seem fitting may be 

 applied by anyone who wishes to take exception to those used. 



In 25 cases where the cash paid out for feed for cattle was ac- 

 counted for separately, the range was from $45 to $2,200, with an 

 average somewhat more than $600 per farm. The average total feed 

 cost for cows per farm at the rates given above is as follows : Group 

 A, $2,345; Group B, $2,548; Group C, $2,131; Group D, $1,397; 

 Group E, $1,001; all farms, $1,937. This compares with a general 

 average of $2,569 per farm as the value of the milk produced. The 

 average offset for manure is $278 per farm, ranging from $158 in 

 Group E to $414 in Group B. ( See manure credit below. ) In special 

 cases the manure may be worth more than this — when the quantity 

 of concentrates fed is large, the need of the land great, and the 

 management of the manure such as to avoid ordinary losses of plant- 

 food value. 



MANURE CREDIT. 



The value of the manure produced on a dairy farm is considerable. 

 It is generally shown as a credit or offset to cost. It is not a cash 

 item, as it might seem to be at first glance from its usual position in 

 the cost statements. It is closely associated with the prices or cost 

 of feeds. If the farmer buys feed, he brings fertility to his farm ; if 

 he feeds his own crops he retains part of the fertility on his farm 

 and can better afford to figure his feed as costing less than market 

 price (less cost of marketing) than he can to part w T ith his crops. 

 The price a farmer gets for any feed he sells includes some payment 

 for the plant food contained in the feed sold. Similarly, the price 

 he pays for feed bought includes some payment for the fertility thus 

 secured. The value placed on this is variable, and is somewhat 

 obscured by the primary considerations leading to sale, or by the 

 more direct use as feed in the case of purchases. While the fact is 

 widely recognized, consciously or unconsciously, that some allowance 

 for the plant food saved to the farm or brought to it properly may 

 be made, there is more or less disagreement as to the amount of the 

 allowance which should be made. This difference arises from dif- 

 ferent needs of different farms and alternative sources of plant food. 



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