WILL MORE FORAGE PAY? 9 



search. The results of their preliminary examinations of experi- 

 mental work and of farmer and rancher experience are contained in 

 this progress report. 



In the Northern States man}' research workers and farmers were 

 interviewed during the first year. A limited number of production 

 plans representative of some important farming situations in the 

 Corn Belt have been developed to illustrate opportunities for in- 

 creasing forage utilization on farms and some of the problems 

 involved. 



As part of the more intensive work in the second phase of the study 

 as it relates to the Northern States, an appraisal of farming adjust- 

 ments with special reference to the economic utilization of more 

 grass and legumes is now being made for the Ida-Monona soil area 

 of western Iowa. This study, a cooperative undertaking with the 

 Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, seeks to find the relative 

 profitableness to individual farmers of alternative systems of farm- 

 ing based upon different levels of grass and legume production and 

 utilization. Major changes in sytems of farming and in soil-manage- 

 ment practices are needed in this steeply rolling area to maintain 

 and improve soil resources. The effects that utilization of more 

 forages would have on individual farm costs and returns and on 

 the pattern of farming in the area are not clear. Factors that ac- 

 celerate and impede the rate of progress in forage extension in the 

 area will be studied, as well as interfarm and inter-area movement of 

 feed crops, possible changes in number and size of farms, in the 

 market supply and price situation, and related factors. 



Other intensive work in the Northern States is planned for se- 

 lected areas of the Lake States. Here potential economic benefits 

 and farm-management problems associated with the utilization of 

 grass silage are to be studied for typical systems of farming. Co- 

 operative work is expected to begin during the last half of 1D49. 

 Many agronomists, animal husbandmen, and agricultural engineers 

 in this area are convinced that making the first cutting of legumes 

 and grass into silage, using improved machinery and techniques al- 

 ready developed, produces more and better quality feed at lower cost 

 per unit than does making it into hay. Yet few farmers on small 

 and medium-sized farms have adopted grass silage. Eeasons for this 

 situation are to be sought in this investigation. 



The Southern States present a wide variety of physical and eco- 

 nomic problems in extending forage production and utilization. 

 Only in recent years have advances in plant breeding and in methods 

 of livestock production made it feasible to consider livestock sys- 

 tems of farming as serious competitors of cotton, and even yet such 

 systems are not practicable in all portions of the area because of con- 

 ditions of soil, climate, and topography. 



During the reconnaissance year, major emphasis in these States 

 was on gaining an understanding of the varied problems and possi- 

 bilities in forage utilization over wide areas of the South. In this 

 report experiences of a number of farmers who have made progress 

 in using the forages illustrate problems that need further considera- 

 tion in intensive studies. 



The first of these is being made in cooperation with the Alabama 

 Experiment Station where alternative systems of farming in the 



