20 
The Colorado Experiment Station 
diversifying his crops so as to distribute the work thru longer 
periods, was rewarded by a higher labor income. 
In those counties where dairy stock was kept, the labor in¬ 
come was almost in exact proportion to the receipts from dairy 
products. Dairy stock has uniformly been more profitable than 
beef stock, as the following comparison, taken from El Paso 
County, will show. The illustration is typical of other counties: 
One way of utilizing many dry-land crops 
On fourteen farms the average receipts per year per cattle 
unit (a cattle unit is a full grown animal or its equivalent in 
young stock) was $44, and the average feed cost per animal unit 
was $28, or an average net return of $16 per animal unit. ..On 
fourteen farms in the same locality beef cattle returned an 
average of $28 per cattle unit, while the feed cost per animal 
unit in the case of the beef animals was $21, leaving a margin of 
$7. On the dairy cattle farms, 94 percent of all live stock was 
dairy cattle. On the beef cattle farms 96 percent of all live 
stock was beef cattle. Dairy cattle adapt themselves much 
better to a small business than beef cattle. In a large business 
both may be successfully used. If properly managed, both are 
capable of profit. 
♦ 
A thoro study of these investigations brings out the further 
fact that the proper proportion of live stock to crop acres must 
be maintained to get the largest profits. On the average, this 
has been found to be about eight crop acres.per animal unit. The 
average crop value per acre in the five counties studied was about 
$12.30. It is not yet possible to give average costs for producing 
this average crop value. But it is possible to give the amount of 
