Bryan daily eagle and pilot. [volume] (Bryan, Tex.) 1909-1918, 1914-08-26
TEXAS A DAlRYlNo STATE.

Is Texas really a dalrying State?
This is a question that should re.
celye much consideration In connec-
ton with the promotion OF dairying
by the Texas Industrial Congress
through the Moser plan OF co-opera.
ton by the business men and farm
ers. II Texas cannot produce butter
fat and other dairy products at cost
less than the Wisconsin or Illinois
cost plus the freight charge from
these States to Texas. then II cannot
even hope to produce butter fat for
the home market; and II our cost OF
production is not low enough to allow
our dairy products TO compete with
the output OF the present dairying
States in the greater butter markets
at profit to our farmers equal to or
greater than the profit on cotton or
other crops, then there can be no con.
siderable dalrying in Texas, because
the most profitable crop always
crowds out the less profitable.
1t is important, therefore. to exam.
inc the factors that enter into success.
full dairying in Texas and see where
we stand, not only as to the cost OF
production In dairying in other States.
but IN comparison with growing other
crops in our own State.
The factors to be compared are cost
Of feed, freight charges and the cost OF
labor. OF which the cost OF feed Is by
far the most important. The center
OF butter production pretty closely ap.
proximates the center OF cheapest
feed supply, unless there is a special
reason to the contrary. The farmers
Of New York State are in some cases
being driven out OF butter production
BY competition of the Middle West,
for although they receive a higher
price for their butter, the cost Of feed
is so much greater in comparison with
the feed cost in the Middle West that
their profits are reduced to a degree
that many Of them hardly make la.
borers' wages.
Can Texas produce feed for dairy
animals as cheaply as Kansas or Min
nesota?
Unfortunately, the 1918 Year Book
Of the United States Department OF
Agriculture gives no data on the cost
of producing the field crops that Texas
must use for dairy feed In Iowa, Kan
sas and other great butter States,
these feeds are generally corn silage,
cottonseed meal and alfalfa or clover
hay. The average of corn production
in Iowa in the 191O.19l3 period was
thirty-six bushels per acre, worth 46
cents a bushel; In Texas the average
was 1884, bushels, worth 72 cents. In
Iowa the average price of butter in
1913 was 27.3 cents per pound; in
Texas II was 22.S cents, but our but
ter was generally Of the inferior grade
known as country" butter, while the
Iowa product was mostly creamery
butter. Texas can produce as good
butter as Iowa II n will. In Iowa, &C.
cording to these figures, II would take
IL pounds Of butter to buy bushel
of corn; in Texas IL would take 3.2
pounds Of the inferior grade. The ear
of corn is about so per cent of the
feed value of corn silage, but the Iowa
farmer checkrows his corn SO inches
each way, planting three stalks to the
hill, so he gets a greater yield OF
stover per acre than the Texas farm.
er, who spaces irregular and grows
but one stalk to the hill. Therefore,
with the present methods Of farming
prevailing in Texas it is out of the
question for It to compete with Iowa
and other States in the corn belt on
cheapness of corn production.
Setting aside the question of wheth.
er Texas, with its conditions of rain.
fall, could by the use OF better cul.
tural methods grow corn in competi.
tion with Iowa and Illinois-and the
averages OF production in the contests
of the Texas Industrial Congress show
a great improvement may be made in
our yields-Texas has a field crop in
her sorghums that can produce butter
as cheaply as the corn Of Iowa and
Illinois. and is dependable under I'm.
favorable conditions Of rainfall. The
Iowa farmer figures his silage at 50
per ton, and it costs him all the way
from this figure to $3.50 per ton, year
in and year out Texas can certainly
grow sorghums and have II ready for
putting into the silo at S11.50 per acre.
allowing S. for the land. andaoan prob,
ably do much better than this. since