46 MISC. PUBLICATION 702, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



of a grassland system. It is a show place known far and wide. Other 

 farmers can grow more grass, but all farmers do not have the same 

 talent for forage and livestock production as has the operator of 

 farm C. 



The changes made on farms A, B, and C are significant. Not many 

 farmers have gone so far in changing from corn and other crops to 

 high-quality pasture and hay crops. Many, however, have started in 

 the same direction. Whether they should go as far as farmers A and 

 C or stop short of complete conversion to grassland as farmer B has 

 done is a question that is not answered in this progress report. It is 

 to be studied further and reported upon in a subsequent report. 



FARM D 



In Washington County, Tenn., Farm D is an unusual example of 

 forage utilization. This 70-acre farm with only 58 acres open has 

 about 60 head of Aberdeen- Angus cattle. Only 3 or 4 acres could be 

 called level. Most of it has considerable slope — up to 50 percent or 

 more in a few places. The 56 acres of cropland are used as follows: 

 Corn, 1 acre; alfalfa, 14 acres; pasture, 40 acres; and garden, 1 acre. 

 In the middle twenties corn was grown on about 45 acres of the land, 

 yielding 15 to 20 bushels per acre. This system was not changed 

 materially until 1938 when the farm was selected for unit test demon- 

 stration under the Tennessee Valley Authority program. Since that 

 time an average of 2y 2 tons of 16-percent or equivalent superphosphate 

 has been applied per acre, along with a total of 5 tons of lime per acre. 

 Some potash has also been applied. TVA has furnished about 21 

 percent of the phosphate used. 



The acre of corn yields 100 bushels now, compared with 42 bushels 

 in 1938. Yields of alfalfa hay are high. Good permanent pastures 

 are disked and planted to rye grass, crimson clover, or other winter 

 crops to increase production. This farmer is running his own experi- 

 ment station, as so many of the leading grassland farmers are doing. 

 Agronomists, soil chemists, economists, and others are watching and 

 counseling. Are his practices practicable? Has he reached or passed 

 the physical optimum with respect to phosphate and lime ? How will 

 this physical optimum, when found, relate to the economic optimum? 

 The experts at the experiment station and the TVA say they don't 

 know the answers. It all looks good on this farm. 



In 1938, before it was converted to a grassland program, the farm 

 system brought in a net cash income of about $600. This would amount 

 to nearly $800 with the medium price level and $1,200 at the high price 

 level used in this study (table 9) . After converting the farm to grass- 

 land, actual net cash income for 1945-47 averaged more than $4,000 a 

 year. With the same inputs and outputs as in 1945-47 and at the two 

 assumed price levels the net cash income for the grassland program 

 at the medium price level would be about $1,060. But at the high 

 price level the net cash income would be about $2,600. 



