WILL MORE FORAGE PAY? 79 



on these irrigated pastures, are sold on the Los Angeles market. The 

 yearlings are pastured 120 days: they gain from 180 to 240 pounds. 

 or from V/ 2 to '2 pounds per day. Their only feed is pasture — no hay 

 or concentrates of any kind are fed. The operator has averaged a 

 2-cent-per-pound margin above his purchase price. 



Irrigated pasture is divided into five beef pastures of 60 acres, each 

 of which is further divided into three units of 20 acres each. These 

 20-acre units are irrigated and grazed in rotation. The pastures are 

 mowed before each irrigation to concentrate available moisture in the 

 tender new growth. The only machines used are a tractor and mower. 

 Three men are employed year-round on this ranch. 



The operator plans to renovate his pastures with a custom-hired 

 chisel renovator every 3 or -i years at a cost of from 50 to 75 cents an 

 acre. Kealizing the limitations of desert soils under irrigation he 

 recognizes that fertilizer must be applied to his pastures sometime 

 in the future. 



This illustration is included only to show the possibilities of devel- 

 oping irrigated beef-finishing ranches on which sufficient capital and 

 other resources can be combined with the superior managerial ability 

 required for large-scale operations of this type. Capital requirements 

 would be high. Cost of the three pumps, grass seed, building fences 

 and corrals, and preparing the 225 acres of range for irrigation would 

 be between ?24.000 and 825.000. Adding to this the value of the land 

 and of the 600 cattle bought yearly gives some idea of the high invest- 

 ment necessary to develop and carry on such an operation. Consider- 

 able ability in buying and selling cattle, and a good knowledge of 

 livestock and range management is required if a unit of this type is to 

 be operated and solvency is to be maintained. 



Tentative Conclusions 



Tentative observations arising out of the reconnaissance work in 

 Western States ma}' be summarized as follows : 



(1) Possibilities exist to maintain incomes and at the same time 

 to add to the stability of wheat-cattle ranches in the northern Great 

 Plains by shifting lower yielding wheat acreages to crested wheat 

 grass and utilizing the increased forage in livestock production. 



(a) Such adjustments involve a minimum of 3 years' time during which 

 temporary reductions in net cash income are likely to he incurred. Heifers or 

 cows must he held hack and cattle numhers increased to take advantage of the 

 increased grass. Receipts from sales of cash grain will he reduced. New 

 investments for crested wheat-grass seed and fencing would he necessary. 

 Some feed may need to he purchased. Increases in livestock inventories would 

 partially offset these temporary losses in income. 



(b\ The economic feasibility of such adjustments is influenced by the pre- 

 vailing level of prices. In general they are made more easily at high price 

 levels than at medium or lower levels. 



(c) Hours of labor saved in seeding and harvesting wheat and in tilling 

 summer fallow is greater than that expended in caring for the additional live- 

 stock made possible in the shift. Annual cash operating expenses are also 

 reduced. 



i '/ 1 Feed supplies are made more certain and soil resources are conserved 

 to better advantage as a result of the shift. 



(e) The extent to which it is economically feasible to substitute crested 

 wheat grass for production of cash grain is a matter for determination on each 



