Lincoln County times. (Jerome, Idaho) 1911-1919, 1915-06-24
IRRIGATED CROPS;
MEAT PRODUCTION
One of the Problems to Find Stock
Which Can Be Fed at a Profit.

You have your land, you have the
water, you bring the two together
then what? The greatest question of |
all is what to raise. what to make |
money from. Farmers ON irrigated |
lands in the west are 100 much on |
the wrong track. and the greatest |
thing in the west today in the reor-
ganization of farming as it relates to
irrigation, the necessity. in short, of
using irrigated crops for meat pro-
duction. Leaving out of the argu-
ment the fruit grower or truck farm
er on irrigated land. who at the best
of 1t will for years occupy but a small
percentage of the irrigated sections.
and the one thing the irrigation farm
er has to do is to get something to
which he can feed his alfalfa profit
ably, or to raise some staple like
wheat or corn for which there is a
reliable market. The problem cent
ers on finding stock which he can feed
so as to get fair price for his alfalfa
OF in case he reases grain, he must
make fair acre returns each year. AL
falfa prices are hugging the ground,
often only little more than the cost
of bailing. The farmer can either
figure that this is a temporary condi-
ton, or figure on abundant alfalfa in
coming years as the acreage increas-
es and production increases with the
Increase of irrigating skill and better
utilization of water.
With good justice the dairy COW is
hearlded as the champion profit max
er for irrigated lands, but it is igno-
rance run riot to consider her, with
some help from hogs kept mainly to
consume skim milk, the only custom
er for alfalfa and irrigated crops. To
have every alfalfa ranch a dairy ranch
would be Just reasonable as to have
every farm in the middle west, ex-
cept those used for garden truck
possible for one thing, too many peo-
pie will never be bound to the job of
milking for another, and alfalfa will
be too abundant for some time to
come, for third reason. Putting it
down on a little more definite basis,
western irrigation farming has got to
develop along the same lines that
eastern stock farming has; some
Pdairying. some hog raising, cattle
feeding, both beef and mutton, some
| 10
stock raised from the start and some
sheep.
The wonderful statement is often
made that 1t does not pay to feed for
meat on irrigated farms. almost in
the same breath with boasts of the
wonderful production OF irrigated
lands. AS long as irrigation means
heavy production there is more rea-
son for stock production with 1t than
with rainfall farming. The irrigation
farmer has either to start raising
stock or stop boasting about his ad-
vantages over the rainfall farmer who
raises and feeds stock and makes a
good living at it. What is more to
| 'hS Pcihts hC udS " bldTI IeeQlnR
stock in hurry or leave lot OF al
falfa hay rot on his hands.
A fault has been here In the west,
or in a good part of 1t, that there has
been no team work between the range
and the irrigated land; stock has
been taken direct from the range to
stock yards without the help that IT.
rfgated crops could give. In some
places this has not been the case, In
others alfalfa has been fed to dairy
stock alone. or baled and shipped, or
left in stacks. The reorganization
calls for better methods for feeding
stock from the range for winter or
before marketing, and for intensive
stock raising from start to finish on
the land itself. That, In brief, is the
big thing before the irrigated west.
In this. special irrigation number,
that is held up as a central fact Of fu-
ture irrigation neutrality-suspicious.
Review,
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