FEED-SURPLUS AND FEED DEFICIT AREAS 



While every State produces feed grain, many States, even in normal 

 times, produce less than their livestock and poultry consume. In fact, 

 few States outside of the Corn Belt produce enough feed for their own 

 requirements. Farmers in these areas, known as feed deficit areas, 

 depend on shipments from feed surplus areas, primarily the Corn Belt, 

 and on imports for a large part of their feed requirements. Farmers in 

 feed surplus areas depend for part of their income on the sale of the grain 

 they produce in excess of the quantity used locally in the production of 

 livestock and poultry. 



Corn, grown in every State, supplies about three-fourths of the Nation's 

 feed grain. Seventy-five percent of the Nation's supply of corn and oats, 

 the two major feed crops, is produced in the Corn Belt. 



The Northeast, East Central and Southern Regions normally produce 

 less feed grain than is required for their livestock and poultry feeding. 

 Ordinarily 40 percent of the feed gra,in requirements for the Northeast 

 States is shipped in from the Corn Belt or imported. Smaller proportions 

 of the total feed grain requirements move from the Corn Belt into the 

 East Central and Southern regions. See map of Agricultural Adjustment 

 Agency regions facing this page. 



Although detailed information on commercial movement of feed 

 grains is inadequate to make a reasonable estimate of the State-by-State 

 movement, we have attempted by means of feed balance tables to indi- 

 cate the quantities of feed grains, including wheat and rye, which were 

 required to accomplish the wartime expansion in livestock and poultry 

 production for the country as a whole. 



NATIONAL FEED BALANCE 



The feeding year runs from October 1 through the following September 

 30. During the 1941-42 feeding year, more than 2.5 billion bushels of 

 corn and a little over 1.5 billion bushels of small grain, which included 

 183.2 million bushels of wheat, were fed to livestock. 



During the 1942-43 feeding year, livestock and poultry consumed 

 more grain than in any previous year. Nearly 3 billion bushels of corn 

 and more than 2 billion bushels of small grains (including 414 million 

 bushels of wheat) were used as feed. This was about 23 percent more 

 grain than was used for feed the previous year. Such a large increase 

 was possible only because of the Ever-Normal Granary stocks that had 

 been built up in peacetime. Virtually all the reserves of corn were used 

 up by the end of September 1943 as a result of increased numbers of 

 livestock. 



Somewhat less grain was fed to livestock and poultry during the 1943 

 44 feeding year. Preliminary estimates indicated the total was about 

 2.9 billion bushels of corn and about 1.9 billion bushels of small grain 

 (including about 444 million bushels of wheat). The largest reductions 

 occurred in oats and barley, as there was a quarter of a billion bushels 

 less oats and barley used as feed in 1943-44 than the previous year. The 

 relative shortness of the feed supply forced a sharp cut in hog produc- 

 tion. 



During the war, the quantity of protein concentrates, mill byproducts, 

 and miscellaneous products used for livestock feed increased 11 percent. 

 The biggest increase was in soybean meal. This general increase was 

 largely a result of the need for greater production of vegetable oils in the 

 United States to replace normal sources of imported oils cut off early 

 in the war. 



