WILL MORE FORAGE PAY? 3 



are more fully used? What will be the effect on conservation of land 

 resources and on stability of our systems of farming I Seeking answers 

 to these and other related questions is the problem of the study upon 

 which this report is based. 



Part of the information needed for the analysis comes from the 

 natural scientists who work to improve our grasses and legumes, and 

 from those who study the feeding of livestock. But an equally im- 

 portant part is contributed by farmers and ranchers who have made 

 progress in extending forages either by utilizing results of research 

 or by their own experimentation. Using the best available data from 

 these sources as to items that must be invested and the resulting outputs 

 of grass and livestock products, prices and costs are applied to ap- 

 praise the result in terms of income for typical farming situations. 

 And incomes are examined both under conditions of favorable and 

 less favorable price and cost relationships. 



This comprehensive approach will involve studies over a period of 

 several years. Funds and personnel are available for intensive work 

 only in a limited number of areas representative of the more important 

 situations in which increased utilization of forage seems possible. 

 Appraisal of the aggregate effects on the national economy must nec- 

 essarily wait upon results from the intensive area studies. 



Although many considerations raised in various phases of this 

 study are incapable of exact solution the work should provide a grow- 

 ing fund of information that will offer considerable guidance to farm- 

 ers interested in expanding the use of forages. It should also provide 

 some basis .for forming judgments regarding the aggregate effects of 

 more grass in farming system^ — in possible changes in the Xation's 

 pattern of crop and livestock production, in recognizing which areas 

 have the greatest advantage in making such shifts, in gaining appre- 

 ciation of factors that may promote or hinder such adjustments, and in 

 general providing the understanding necessary to competent guid- 

 ance of important segments of our agricultural programs. 



FEED SUPPLIES AND THEIR UTILIZATION 



Before turning to the story of the first year's work on this project, 

 a few points regarding the present importance of forages in agricul- 

 ture are presented. For the most part, production and use of forages 

 are identified with the Xation's livestock industry which makes a 

 very important contribution to agricultural production. In 1940 about 

 27 percent of the Xation's gross farm production was made up of live- 

 stock and its products when measured in terms of 1035-39 — average 

 dollars. This relationship remains fairly stable ; it varied during the 

 last quarter century from a low of 25 percent in 1937 to a high of 33 

 percent in 1934. The severe droughts of 1934 and 1930 are largely re- 

 sponsible for these variations, first by sending unusually large numbers 

 of stock to market when supplies of feed were drastically cut and in 

 the same process curtailing numbers that normally would have been 

 marketed a few years later. 



But such comparisons stand out in even bolder relief when made 

 against the Nation's food supply alone. In 1940 about 45 percent by 

 weight of all food consumed in the United States, nearly 49 percent of 

 its nutrient content, and about 00 percent of all food expenditures 



