DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



83 



I have the pleasure of introducing to you W. A. Cochel, professor of animal 

 husbandry in the Kansas Agricultural College: 



Address of Mr. Cochel. 

 BEEF CATTLE AS A MARKET FOR THE BYPRODUCTS OF GRAIN 

 IN THE SUBHUMID DISTRICTS. 



Three crops stand out as predominating in the subhumid sections of the 

 United States. 



In the order of their acreage they are grass, wheat, and sorghums. 



Little attention has been paid by investigators to the first of these, 

 which is by far the greatest, due in part to the fact that there is no very 

 accurate method of measuring its value or its improvement. This is true 

 not only in the subhumid but also in the humid sections of the country. 



No permanent, profitable system of farming has been established in 

 any wide area without grass, which necessitates livestock for its utilization. 

 Whenever grass is entirely eliminated from the farm crops, decrease in 

 yield of all other crops follows, and a discontented, restless, unhappy farm- 

 ing population becomes discouraged. 



Until recent years they have moved on into what is known as the virgin 

 prairies where they again followed the same system of breaking the sod, 

 sowing grain, depleting the soil which they abandoned when it became no 

 longer productive. As there are no longer great areas of new land to be 

 brought under cultivation in a wholesale manner, it is now necessary that 

 we begin to improve those which we have already depleted. History shows 

 that the only means by which this can be successfully accomplished is 

 through the use of livestock. 



Throughout the great wheatgrowing sections of Kansas and adjoining 

 states, the practice of burning straw is of such common occurrence as to 

 excite little or no comment, except from those who live in sections where 

 the full value of this byproduct of grain farming is fully appreciated. In 

 the spring following a year which has been favorable to the production of 

 forage crops, the same sight may be witnessed in the fields which have 

 been utilized for the production of coarser cereals, such as corn, kafir, 

 milo, and similar grain crops. 



This practice was general in western Kansas in the spring of 1913, 

 although within three months thousands of cattle were being shipped out 

 of the same sections because of the inability of pastures to carry stock 

 until the fall sown wheat was capable of feeding them. 



I venture to assert that sufficient feed was wasted and destroyed in the 

 state during the winter and spring of 1913 to have fed every animal which 

 was sacrificed on a glutted market until a sufficient quantity was again 

 produced. During this same season at the Hays Station instead of wasting 

 feed, as much of it as possible was stored in silos, which were left intact 

 while dry roughage was utilized for the maintenance of breeding herds, 

 and the remainder stacked in large stacks early in the spring and carried 

 over for future use. The result was that while practically every farmer 

 in the vicinity was compelled to abuse his pasture by overgrazing, finally 



