COST OF MILK PRODUCTION ON WISCONSIN FARMS. 9 
of which was fed in 1920. The 1920 crop also was made with high- 
priced labor. The pea silage bought cost about $2.50 per ton, plus 
the labor of getting it, which, while considerable in amount, was 
done at odd times. The beets and the pea-vine silage fed were 
placed on the same basis as corn silage. Silage does not have a 
market value, but is assigned its value in various ways, sometimes 
from the price of corn, sometimes from cost of putting it up, some- 
times from values of some feed which it will replace. Occasionally 
silage is sold at auction, but the price paid at a sale is not a very 
good indication of value, depending as it does on the necessities of 
the bidders and the cost of moving it to the place where it will be 
fed. Corn fodder has about twice as much dry matter per ton as 
silage, and nearly twice as much net energy, but is subject to some- 
what greater waste, and is not highly rated where hay is abundant. 
If it may be contended that the prices used are too high for home- 
grown feed, it can hardly be denied that if all the feed needed had 
been purchased the total feed cost would have exceeded the amount 
figured. At any rate, such other prices as may seem fitting may be 
applied by anyone who wishes to take exception to those used. 
In 25 cases where the cash paid out for feed for cattle was ac- 
counted for separately, the range was from $45 to $2,200, with an 
average somewhat more than $600 per farm. The average total feed 
cost for cows per farm at the rates given above is as f ollows : Group 
A, $2,345; Group B, $2,548; Group C, $2,131; Group D, $1,397; 
Group E, $1,001; all farms, $1,937. This compares with a general 
average of $2,569 per farm as the value of the milk produced. The 
average offset for manure is $278 per farm, ranging from $158 in 
Group E to $414 in Group B. ( See manure credit below.) In special 
cases the manure may be worth more than this — when the quantity 
of concentrates fed is large, the need of the land great, and the 
management of the manure such as to avoid ordinary losses of plant- 
food value. 
MANURE CREDIT. 
The value of the manure produced on a dairy farm is considerable. 
It is generally shown as a credit or offset to cost. It is not a cash 
item, as it might seem to be at first glance from its usual position in 
the cost statements. It is closely associated with the prices or cost 
of feeds. If the farmer buys feed, he brings fertility to his farm ; if 
he feeds his own crops he retains part of the fertility on his farm 
and can better afford to figure his feed as costing less than market 
price (less cost of marketing) than he can to part with his crops. 
The price a farmer gets for any feed he sells includes some payment 
for the plant food contained in the feed sold. Similarly, the price 
he pays for feed bought includes some payment for the fertility thus 
secured. The value placed on this is variable, and is somewhat 
obscured by the primary considerations leading to sale, or by the 
more direct use as feed in the case of purchases. While the fact is 
widely recognized, consciously or unconsciously, that some allowance 
for the plant food saved to the farm or brought to it properly may 
be made, there is more or less disagreement as to the amount of the 
allowance which should be made. This difference arises from dif- 
ferent needs of different farms and alternative sources of plant food. 
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