WILL MORE FORAGE PAY? 17 



A great need remains for improved forage-harvesting machines 

 adapted to farms on which small to medium tonnages of forage are 

 stored. 



Technical Possibilities for Utilization of Forages 



Utilization of forages in the Northern States has not changed in any 

 real way for a long time. Some grasses and legumes are now used in 

 preparation of vitamin products. Somewhat more alfalfa is made 

 into meal than earlier. At times forages are used solely for green 

 manure. But all of these uses combined account for only a small frac- 

 tion of the forages produced. Today, as 25 years ago. the bulk of 

 grasses and legumes grown in the Northern States are used by live- 

 stock. Looking ahead, no new uses for the forage crops of this region 

 appear in the offing. 3 Analysis of the economic utilization of forage 

 crops becomes, then, a problem of examining possibilities for profit- 

 able changes in ways in which grasses and legumes are presently used 

 on farms. 



Every class of farm livestock possesses the physical capacity to 

 utilize forage in some amount. Information in tables 3 and 4 shows 

 the extent to which each class used forages during 1942-46. It was 

 observed that the ruminants — cattle and sheep — depended heaviest 

 upon this kind of feed. 



Mature cattle, sheep, and idle horses may be maintained in good 

 health on good-quality forages alone. Hogs and chickens, though, 

 need some concentrates. Otherwise, their body weights and normal 

 body functions are not maintained. In practice, however, all farm 

 livestock usually get some concentrates at some time during the course 

 of each year. A notable exception are beef cows carried solely on 

 pasturage and good-quality legume hay. Feeding of many of the 

 concentrates is an economic matter. Grains and byproduct feeds are 

 fed in amounts in excess of those needed to meet the maintenance 

 requirements of the animals because it pays to do so. They increase 

 the volume and quality of product per animal. The value of the addi- 

 tional product obtained from feeding concentrates is greater than the 

 added cost of the feeds. 



Because the feeding of concentrates to farm livestock is based heavily 

 upon economic elements, it follows that there is considerable flexibility 

 in the nature of the rations fed. At times of high prices for livestock 

 and livestock products and low prices for feeds, farmers find it profit- 

 able to increase rations. When the situation is reversed, with low 

 livestock prices and high feed prices, it pays to reduce them. Adjust- 

 ments made in rations because of changes in the relationship between 

 feed and livestock prices often involve substitution of forage for con- 

 centrates and vice versa. This is especially true for farm animals 

 that have the capacity to utilize large quantities of roughage. Produc- 

 tion costs are not considered in this section. 



3 Attention is directed to the distinction between the use of forage crops on 

 individual farms and in agriculture generally. Production and utilization of a 

 forage crop on a farm on which it had not been used earlier would represent a 

 new use of the crop on that farm. But when already in use on other farms this 

 would nor represent a new use in agriculture. Rather it would be an extension 

 of its use in agriculture. On this basis opportunities remain for new uses of 

 forage crops on individual farms. 



