12 MISC. PUBLICATION 7 02, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



involved in forage utilization may include investments in livestock 

 and in the buildings and equipment needed to service a livestock enter- 

 prise. Not all of these items constitute problems for every farmer who 

 adjusts toward greater emphasis on forages but some of them are sure 

 to have their impact. The relative scarcity of grass and legume seeds 

 is perhaps one of the most commonly experienced retarding factors 

 and the current high price of these seeds is a real impediment in some 

 areas. 



(c) Concentration on short-run profits at the expense of long-time 

 farm stability and reluctance to experience an adjustment period of 

 several years during which annual income may be below that currently 

 realized. 



(d) Failure to give as much attention to improved practices in pro- 

 duction of high-quality hays and pastures as to the cash-crop enter- 

 prises on the farm. 



(e) Systems of leasing land that discourage the tenant from mak- 

 ing other than short-time investments. 



(/) Farms that are too small to engage in other than intensive 

 systems of farming. 



(g) Unwillingness of operators of cash-crop farms to acquire skills 

 needed in livestock production. 



(h) Need in some instances for additional labor which the farmer 

 is not interested in providing because it means working more hours. 



(i) Farmer reluctance to assume risks. In many instances new 

 techniques and unfamiliar practices must be applied and investments 

 made with some degree of uncertainty regarding results. 



In the northern Great Plains, for instance, many of the good stands 

 of crested wheat grass during the last decade occurred in years of 

 exceptionally favorable growing conditions as judged by past records. 

 Although experimental seeclings in 1933 and 1935 came through the 

 droughts of 1934 and 1936, farmers are likely to wonder whether they 

 can count on obtaining a good stand of grass in the 3 years assumed 

 in this report. Longer periods of waiting would involve additional 

 income deferments and make the adjustment both more difficult and 

 more costly. 



6. A growing body of research at the land-grant colleges and in the 

 United States Department of Agriculture is designed to throw more 

 light on production and utilization of forage. Much of the existing 

 research data, although of value for other purposes, has only limited 

 usefulness in this study. Many of the agronomic studies have been 

 conducted on a plot basis and feeding experiments frequently have 

 been confined to a single lot of high-quality animals and to a single 

 feeding rate. Needed are experiments designed to approximate as 

 closely as possible conditions found on representative farm units and 

 the practical range of feeding rates and substitutions of one type of 

 feed for another. Close cooperation between agricultural economists 

 and natural scientists is desirable to insure that results of physical 

 research will lend themselves to economic evaluation. 



7. Among the additional physical data needed as a basis for economic 

 evaluation are the following : 



(a) Quantity of concentrates needed by milking cows when on good 

 pasture of different kinds of grasses and legumes. 



