6 



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



or grazed, with skim milk, buttermilk, and whey fed as liquids making 

 up the remaining 40 percent. 



Table 2. — Relative importance of different sources of livestock feed, 

 United States, average 191$-]$ 1 



Item 



Percentage 



of total feed 



units 



Concentrates : 

 All feed grains 2 



Percent 



36. 1 



Commercial byproducts 



7. 3 



Other 



1. 8 







Total 



45. 2 







Roughage : 



Hay ___ __ __ __ 



15. 6 



Pasture and grazing 



34. 1 



Other 



5. 1 







Total ___ 



54. 8 







Total feed 



100. 







1 All feeds converted to a feed-unit basis in terms of equivalent of pounds of 

 corn. 



2 Excluding corn in silage. 



Unpublished data, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, R. D. Jennings. 



Table 2 indicates that nearly 16 percent of the 1942—46 feed units 

 were derived from hay crops. Alfalfa furnished about a third of 

 these feed units from hay, clover and timothy about 30 percent, wild 

 hay from 10 to 13 percent, with the remainder from soybeans, grains, 

 peanut vines, cowpeas, and sweetclovers. 



Pasture and grazing was second only to feed grains as a supplier 

 of livestock feed during 1942-46 ; it contributed well over a third of 

 the total feed units. Although it is difficult to estimate the relative 

 importance of the different types of pasture and grazing lands, they 

 may be ranked roughly in the following order : Rotation and plowable 

 pasture on farms and ranches; nonplowable and woodland pasture 

 on farms and ranches, grazing land not on farms and ranches; and 

 crop residues pastured (table 1). 



Other types of roughage such as corn and sorghum silage, wet beet 

 pulp, sorghum forage, and corn stover supply about 5 percent of the 

 Nation's livestock feed. Corn stover contributes about a half and the 

 silages nearly another half of the feed units supplied by this group. 



Both concentrates and roughages are included in the rations for 

 each class of farm livestock but their relative importance varies widely. 

 On an average, less of the feed for hogs and poultry is composed of 

 roughages but dairy and beef cattle, horses, mules, and sheep derive 

 well over two-thirds of their feed from this source (table 3). This 

 characteristic is so pronounced that different classes of livestock are 

 commonly thought of as roughage-consuming or grain-consuming 

 types. But this is only a rough distinction. Dairy cattle generally 



