The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1509 
The Manurial Value of Cattle Feed 
I am taking over the general live stock departments 
of a Massachusetts farm, and as in the past, where I 
have been located as manager of farms, there has been 
quite a lot of dissatisfaction on the matter of credits 
from the farm department from manure received from 
dairy herds especially. The general rule is for the farm 
to furnish bedding and receive the manure in exchange, 
and as grain has been fed quite heavily the manure has, 
I have always felt, a much higher value than that which 
was received. I am wondering if we cannot work out 
a plan whereby, when we know the actual amount of 
feed consumed, the amount of material constituents can 
be determined and credited to the dairy herd at pre¬ 
vailing market valqe for such constituents 
in commercial fertilizers at stated times 
of the year. It is, you will realize, an 
easy matter to work out the amount 
passing on into the manure, and my con¬ 
tention has always been that as these 
are in the manure, why should the dairy 
herd not receive the value for same, to 
which it is entitled? I have taken this 
matter up with the experiment stations, 
and they cannot give any sensible reason 
why the dairy should not receive due 
credit. The only excuse is that it is cus¬ 
tomary to exchange manure for bedding. 
I am giving you as an instance, for 
■example, amounts of feed that might be 
consumed in one month by a certain herd. 
I am showing the fertilizing constituents 
in same, and I have deducted 25 per cent 
of the nitrogen and 10 per cent of the 
phosphoric acid and potash. In actual 
tests I should only have taken oil' 20 per 
cent of the nitrogen, but I wanted to 
make it good measure. You will notice 
the balance which I have shown as 
manurial constituents. Why should not 
the dairy herd receive the market value 
of these and be charged for the bedding, 
which would, if it were straw, also be 
charged back to the farm at its manurial 
value? That is. the dairy pays the mar¬ 
ket value of the straw per ton, and 
charges it back to its value for manure. 
The straw and hay is all delivered to the 
dairy baled, therefore easy to know actual 
weights. 
Only one question can arise, and that 
is: what kind of care this manure is to 
receive. It will no doubt be our plan to 
use Barium phosphate in the gutters, 
which will not be charged to the herd at 
all. but the farm will furnish it at their 
own expense for us to incorporate into 
the manure in this, the best way. So 
this item of charge and credit will be 
eliminated. The manure will be well- 
cared for, and in pit, hauled out as near 
as practical as fast as made. When 
allowed to stand for any length of time 
it will be kept wetted down, as in this 
system the farm is not to be charged for 
manure by the ton weight, but by what 
goes through the cows, less the above per¬ 
centages in deductions. 
It is not necessary that I give you the 
mixture of grain, as 1 do not feel that 
we need to go into that amount of detail 
to reach our point, but will say that these 
figures are fairly correct, having been 
secured from the unquestionable source 
of Henry & Morrison. 
MONTH FEEDS CONSUMED BY MATURE 
DAIRY CATTLE: 
tie during the last year of his lease and, by law, was 
obliged to leave the manure on the farm, he felt 
that he should have some return for the plant food 
obtained in purchased feeds. Unless he did have some 
benefit there was little incentive for him to feed heav¬ 
ily. Yet by the terms of his lease he is obliged to main¬ 
tain the fertility of the farm. So in order to make 
some sort of fair adjustment a plan was figured out for 
estimating what is called the residual value of manure. 
Xitro- 
Phos- 
gen 
phoric 
Potash 
6,000 lbs. mixed 
ration . 
'21V2 2 
74.1 
83.1 
8.000 lbs. clov. hay 
104.0 
31.2 
130.4 
18.000 lbs. silage... 
01.2 
29. S 
79.2 
Fort, constituents.. 
458.0 
134.1 
292.7 
Less 25%N-10% P-0 K 
&K..0 .: 
114.5 
13.4 
29.2 
Man’l constituents.'. 
343.5 
120.7 
263.5 
This would applv 
when 
the cows are 
stabled, as during the Winter, and 
if the 
cattle are stabled during the daytime in 
the Summer we would have to work out 
■some line of deductions further that would 
be fair to the farm department for the 
loss of the manure which went on the 
pastures when the herd was turned out 
for the night. 
I am sure that I am not opening up a 
new line of manure values, but I do be¬ 
lieve that such as I have outlined can 
be made practical and applicable where 
the amounts of feed consumed are actually 
known. This is not any more compli¬ 
cated than our butterfat tests or our 
compounding of rations, and to me it 
looks like a matter we should take up and 
give manure the credit and place in farm 
accounts that it rightfully deserves, 
especially in these times of high prices for 
everything in the fertilizer line. There is 
still one thing more. I have not asked 
! or il n.v value for the fact that manure 
is teeming with bacteria, breaking down 
the organic matter and making the 
stituents not only of itself, but the 
more available. This is not the case 
commercial fertilizers. u. l. 
North Grafton, Mass. 
O OMETHING of this plan has been 
^ worked out in England. You will 
find a brief explanation in “Fertilizers 
nnd Manures,” by A. 1). Hall. In Eng- 
i; md. under the tenant system, trouble 
arose in estimating the value of manure 
to the land. When the tenant fed cat- 
con- 
soil, 
with 
F. 
Poor Corn Yield On Untreated Land. Fig. Jfl6 
Corn Yield Where Land Had Dressing of Sand. Fig. 
Unpromising Outlook for Orchard. 
FigJ,78. (Sec Page 1510) 
i ui c.vanijjiu, suppusu a tenant reeus a ton or 
or of cornmeal to the cattle during the last year of 
his lease, and leaves the manure on the farm. He 
has paid for about 50 pounds of nitrogen, CO of 
phosphoric acid and 35 of potash in the bran and 
30 of nitrogen, 12 of phosphoric acid and seven of 
potash in the cornmeal. How much of this does he 
leave in the manure for the next tenant or for the 
owner? The English law states that if he conducts 
the farm according to agreement, with 
a regular rotation, he is to have a 
credit or compensation for a certain 
share of the plant food values in the 
grain he has fed during the last two 
years of his lease. 
Many experiments showed that of 
the nitrogen fed to an animal 15 per 
cent or less is retained by the animal 
in body or milk. Counting the usual 
losses in handling manure, it was 
figured that about one-half the nitro¬ 
gen found in the food would finally 
appear in the manure as it went back 
to the soil. It might be more or less 
than that, according to the way the 
manure was handled, but that is a fair 
average. There would be a difference, 
too, when the feed was fed in pasture, 
and of course young stock and milk 
cows would take more out of the feed 
than beef animals. 
Considering all these things, the rule 
in England seems to be about as fol¬ 
lows : Take the total amounts of feed 
fed during the year and figure out the 
average per cent of nitrogen, phos¬ 
phoric acid and potash, and their value 
at market prices. Then consider that 
of this plant food fed during the last 
year one-half the nitrogen, three- 
fourths of the phosphoric acid and all 
the potash is passed on into the 
manure. For the last year but one of 
the lease one-half of these valuations 
are accepted when the tenant moves 
away. Thus suppose a tenant feeds a 
ton of bran in 191S and another ton in 
1919. and moves away in 1920. When 
he came to settle with the landlord he 
would receive credit for 12*4 pounds 
of nitrogen for the 1918 crop and also 
15 pounds of phosphoric acid and 35 of 
potash. For the 1919 crop he would 
be compensated for 25 pounds of nitro¬ 
gen. 45 of phosphoric acid and 35 of 
potash, because it would be argued that 
these quantities of plant food remained 
in the manure and soil. 
Probably the same basis for figuring 
would he fair in such a case as is men¬ 
tioned above. Surely the exchange of 
a ton of straw for the plant food in a 
ton of bran or of cottonseed meal is not 
a fair trade. We do not see that it 
would be possible to figure out the 
value of the bacteria in the manure, 
though such a value exists. 
Some one asks how to figure the 
value of a pound each of nitrogen, 
phosphoric acid or potash. We should 
find what nitrate of soda, acid phos¬ 
phate and potash will cost at the farm. 
This could be figured at the market 
price for these chemicals. There is no 
other plant food in nitrate of soda ex¬ 
cept nitrogen. At 16 per cent of nitro¬ 
gen there would be 320 pounds in a ton. 
If the price of the ton were $80 that 
would mean 25 cents a pound. With 
a 14 per cent acid phosphate at $25, 
there would be 240 pounds of phos¬ 
phoric acid in the ton, worth nearly 
nine cents a pound. Figures obtained 
in that way would be fair. 
/ 'V'V 
A Roadside Stand After the Orchard Got Busy. Fig. .' f 79. (See Page 1510) 
A Canadian Fruit Grower Travels 
t This year I managed to get away frot 
Nova Scotia to see how other apple grow 
ors are doing. Nova Scotia lias a gooc 
fair crop, although not much more tha 
half that of last year. Our crop of abou 
800.000 barrels will be divided betwee 
Quebec, say 200.009 barrels, local 100 
000 barrels, export to Eurone 400,00 
