1922.] 



Production of Meat on Pastures. 



305 



average of the first four — which may be taken as representing 

 the best that can be expected — coincides with my original esti- 

 mate, while the average of the last four, representing moderate 

 returns from pastures of fine quality, is 16 per cent, less than 

 was estimated. 



My original figure for the quantity of beef produced during 

 summer grazing was 120 lb. from 200 lb. live weight increase ; 

 the average of the seven estimates A to G works out at 113 lb. 

 from 189 lb. live increase; the average of the four highest at 

 131 lb. from 218 lb. live increase. 



Neglecting the value of the winter grazing, the average of 

 the seven estimates for summer and autumn prod action works 

 out at 172 lb. of meat from 295 lb. live increase, as against my 

 original estimate of 175 ib. from 300 lb. live increase. 



We may take it then that the best pastures in the English 

 Midlands are capable of producing on an average of years about 

 175 lb. of meat per acre during the summer and autumn without 

 the aid of feeding stuffs, and that if we add the increase from 

 occasional grazing at other seasons of the year, the total produc- 

 tion will amount to about 190 lb. of meat, and the total live 

 increase to about 330 ib. per acre. 



It is at once obvious how greatly the production of this rich 

 grass land must exceed the average yield of our fattening pas- 

 tures. The total number of grass-fed cattle marketed annually, 

 from July to November inclusive, is about one million; feeding 

 stuffs are freely used in fattening cattle on grass; but if even 

 one-thirtieth part of the grass-land of the United Kingdom were 

 equal in quality to these Midland pastures, all the beef made in 

 the final fattening period by the home-fed cattle slaughtered 

 from 1st July to 30th November could be produced on this small 

 fraction of our grass land, without recourse to feeding stuffs and 

 without any assistance from roots or other tillage crops. 



From the actual numbers of the live stock marketed, it would, 

 indeed, appear to be very unlikely that we could find 250,000 

 acres of grass land in the whole country capable of producing as 

 much meat as those pastures which are here referred to. Tin r 

 is no doubt a very much larger area capable of producing this 

 quantity of meat in a favourable season, but the particular 

 quality which marks off a very fine from an ordinary good pasture 

 is the certainly of the yield. It is only on the finest grass land 

 that we can rely on securing high production on an average oi 

 years without aid from feeding stuffs. 



