RETURNS FROM ANIMALS
In any well-considered plan of farm operations it is essential to have
some basis for estimating the amount of food required to carry live
stock through the year in order to know, on the one hand, what portion
of the crops raised are available for sale and, on the other hand,
what food supplies must be purchased. A requisite of any successful
farm enterprise is a proper consideration of these market conditions.
While domestic animals consume a variety of foods, and each class of
animals has special food requirements, the basis of calculation of the
needed supplies is fortunately not complicated. Twenty-five pounds of
dry matter are required per day for each thousand pounds of live
weight of horses, cattle and sheep, and for swine about 40 pounds for
each thousand pounds of live weight. It may be more convenient to
calculate the food requirement of swine on the basis of increase in
live weight, allowing five pounds of dry matter for each pound of
increase. Some further details as to food requirements will be found
in the paragraphs which follow.
COST OF PRODUCING HOGS
Pigs possess two characteristics which make them unique among domestic
animals. They consume concentrated and easily digested foods only, and
they produce nothing but meat, fat and bristles. Cattle furnish milk
and hides; sheep, wool, hides and sometimes milk; fowls furnish eggs
and feathers. On account of their limited range of usefulness and
because of the high value of much of the food consumed, it would not
be possible to rear swine economically were it not for their
prolificacy and the fact that they are employed largely as scavengers.
Many cattle are fattened without direct profit. The indirect profit
comes from the sale of the pigs which have followed the cattle. It is
customary to mature one hog with little or no additional food while
fattening two steers. In many well-known ways, pigs consume products
which would otherwise be wasted. This is especially true in the more
densely settled sections of the world.
On account of their prolificacy, the returns obtained for the amount
of capital invested is greater than in the case of sheep, cattle or
horses. Ten sows, worth $100 to $150, are sufficient to produce 100
pigs; 75 to 80 ewes, worth from $300 to $500, are required to produce
an equal number of lambs; 110 cows, worth $4,500 to $6,000, to produce
100 calves; and 200 mares, worth from $20,000 to $30,000, to guarantee
100 foals. To put the matter in another way, the capital invested in
swine may be reproduced in the offspring ten times in one year; the
capital invested in horses not more than once in five years.
In general, 500 pounds of maize will produce 100 pounds of pork, which
is equivalent to eleven pounds of pork from a bushel. Since hogs are
so largely produced from maize, the price of maize and the price of
pork are very closely related. For example, if maize is worth fifty
cents a bushel, the grain required to produce a pound of increase in
live weight will cost about 5 cents; if 40 cents a bushel, 4 cents; if
30 cents a bushel, 3 cents; and so on.
COST OF PRODUCING SHEEP
In the classic investigations by Lawes and Gilbert, food containing
100 pounds of dry matter produced a live-weight increase of nine
pounds in steers and 11 pounds in sheep. At the Wisconsin station,
sheep required less food than steers per pound of gain. During rapid
fattening of sheep 500 pounds of clover hay and 400 pounds of maize
may produce 100 pounds of increase in live weight. While swine require
a less weight of food for a pound of increase than sheep, on account
of the more digestible character of the food eaten, yet the Wisconsin
station found that the expense of producing a pound of increase was
less in sheep on account of the less expensive character of the food.
MEAT AND MILK PRODUCTION COMPARED
A summary of the investigations of American experiment stations shows
that 100 pounds of dry matter produced ten pounds of increase in live
weight of steers. The same quantity of food when fed to milch cows
produced 74 pounds of milk, plus one pound of increase in live weight.
This 74 pounds of milk contained 3-1/4 pounds of fat. In general,
therefore, the food required to produce a pound of butter fat is about
three times that required to produce a pound of increase in steers.
COST OF STEER FEEDING
The fattening of beef animals is largely conducted by farmers who make
a specialty of it. This is particularly true in the so-called corn
belt. Into this region are gathered the two and three-year-old and,
more rarely, yearling steers, many of which have been reared in Texas
or in the mountain states where the supply of maize is not sufficiently
ample to fatten them. These are placed in paddocks with open sheds,
where they are fed from 90 to 150 days, after which they are sent to
market for slaughter. The food consists usually of maize fodder, maize
stover, hay, maize (usually in the ear), a little bran, linseed or
cottonseed oil meal. The ration per day during rapid fattening is about
20 pounds of dry matter per 1,000 pounds of live weight, containing 16
pounds of digestible substance, of which 1.25 to 1.75 is digestible
protein. One hundred pounds of increase may be obtained under average
conditions from 150 pounds stover, 325 pounds of hay, 775 pounds of
maize and 75 pounds of cottonseed meal.
Great variations will occur, however, depending upon the condition of
the animals at the beginning of the feeding period and the degree of
fatness or finish to which the animals are brought before placing upon
the market. In any case, the food consumed will cost more than the
value of the increase. The only way that steers can be profitably
fattened is by increasing the value per pound of the animal. Thus an
800-pound steer may be purchased at five cents per pound, or $40.
After feeding, say 150 days, he may weigh 1,100 pounds, when to bring
a profitable return he should sell for 6 cents a pound, or $65. This
is a gain of $25, eight of which came from the increase in value of
the original 800 pounds. Usually steers cannot be fattened profitably
unless there is an increase of at least three-quarters of a cent per
pound in the value of the animals and then, as previously explained,
only in connection with the hogs which follow them.
COST OF PRODUCING MILK AND BUTTER FAT
Well-selected and properly fed cows may produce 240 pounds of butter
fat annually. The amount of fat obtained will depend upon the richness
of the milk. Thus, 8,000 pounds of 3% milk, 6,000 pounds of 4% milk,
or a trifle less than 5,000 pounds of 5% milk, will give this quantity
of butter fat. These are customary returns from different types of
cows.
If each cow in the herd is dry for six weeks each year the daily
average of the cows actually milked will be three-quarters of a pound
of butter fat. There are herds which make an average of nine-tenths of
a pound of butter fat per day, but to secure this result requires
superior cattle, careful feeding and more than ordinary care.
The standard ration for milch cows weighing from 1,000 to 1,200 pounds
is 25 pounds of dry matter, two-thirds of which is digestible. The
ration should contain not less than two pounds of digestible protein.
In ordinary practice, about ten pounds of the dry matter of the ration
is obtained from maize silage, nine pounds from hay and about six
pounds from grain or other concentrates. In general, this is obtained
by feeding 35 pounds of maize silage, ten pounds of hay and seven to
eight pounds of concentrates. The silage may be estimated at one-tenth
to one-eighth of a cent a pound, hay at from one-fourth to one-half
cent and concentrates at from three-quarters to one and one-quarter
cents per pound, varying, of course, with the different sections of
the country. The amount of food needed will vary somewhat with the
size of the animals, but will depend much more largely upon the amount
of milk and butter fat given. While maintaining substantially the
general average just given for the whole herd, it is the practice of
careful feeders to vary the amount of concentrates fed to each
individual in accordance with the amount of butter fat or milk given.
[Illustration: Mr. Gabriel Hiester, Harrisburg, Pa., graduate of the
Pennsylvania State College, for many years trustee of the college and
president of the State Horticultural Society, had a beautiful farm home
near Harrisburg. During the first twenty years in bearing his orchard, of
which one-fourth the trees were unprofitable varieties, returned an
average of $80 per acre with apples selling at 60 cents to $1 per bushel.
Mr. Hiester believed, with a proper selection of varieties and a
favorable location, that any well-managed orchard can be made to do much
better.]
[Illustration: Dr. J. H. Funk, Boyertown, Pa., graduate of the
University of Pennsylvania, 1865, farmers' institute lecturer, former
state pomologist, has 50 acres of apples and peaches. Returns from his
plantings begun in 1896 are so phenomenal that he is afraid to permit the
publication of his profits. It is known, however, that he has sold $5,000
each of peaches and apples in one year.]
COST OF MAINTAINING WORK HORSES
At the Minnesota station, the total cost of feeding and maintaining a
farm work horse for one year was estimated to be from $75 to $90, of
which about $20 was charged for interest and depreciation. On the
basis of 3.3 hours as the length of the working day, the cost per
horse per hour was estimated to be 7-1/2 cents. At the Ohio state
university, it was found that four horses weighing about 1,400 pounds
were chosen to perform 2,185 hours of labor during one year, while
under like conditions four horses, weighing about 200 pounds less,
worked on an average but 1,641 hours each. For each secular day,
therefore, the former worked about 7-1/2 hours, while the latter were
employed but five and one-half hours. The cost of food was estimated
at $54; cost of shoeing, repairs of harness and stable supplies at
$6.50; and the cost of feeding, grooming and cleaning of stables at
$23.50, or a total cost of $84 per year. Nothing was charged for
interest or depreciation, but the expense of feeding and caring for
three colts was included in the estimates given. The annual expense of
maintaining a horse was practically the same in both states, but the
cost per hour of labor performed was less because of the possibility
of employing the horses at productive labor a larger portion of the
time. Too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the need of planning a
farm organization which will give continuous employment to horses as
well as to men in order to realize the most profitable returns. An
industrial system that makes it necessary to maintain work animals
three days in order to secure one day's work falls far short of an
ideal.