Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1915-10-01
Dairy Production Conditions in the
Pacific Northwest

little warmer than are found on the west
coast. That section close to the Cascade
Range is the irrigated section and for the
past ten years most of the interest has
been along the line of orcharding, but
even the orchardist has found that it is to
his advantage to have live stock on his
tract so as to increase the production from
his trees. A trip into the fruit section now
Will reveal the fact that great progress
is being made along dairying lines-nearly
every small tract having from one to a
dozen cows on it, and some larger ones as
high as fifty to seyenty-five.
The big advantage Of this section over
any other is that it will grow enormous
yields of alfalfa, hay, and corn for silage
Five tons of hay to the acre and thirty
tons of green corn for silage are common
yields. This gives cheap feed for the
dairy COW and one that is conducive to
great milk production.
These conditions are also to be found in
that fertile irrigated country in southern
Idaho and eastern Oregon Here the yields
of alfalfa and corn are even larger than
those found in Washington and this makes
up for the lack in marketing facilities
With alfalfa hay at five dollars per ton and
corn silage at $3.50 per ton, which prices
are prevalent in these irrigated sections, we
find that large cows giving forty pounds
of three per cent milk daily can produce
pound of butter-fat at feed cost of less
than ten cents, and one hundred pounds
Of milk at feed cost of less than thirty
cents
The Inland Empire
That section which comprises the ex-
IRENE eastern part of the states of Wash
ington and Oregon and the panhandle Of
Idaho, sometimes called the Inland EN-
pire, has a different set Of conditions. Here
the rainfall ranges from eighteen to
twenty-four inches annually. Most of the
land is very rolling, so that irrigation is
not possible, even if it were necessary.
BY practising summer following, how
ever large crops of the small grains, es-
pecially wheat, are grown. At the pre-
vailing prices of these farm products the
farmers are able to get fair returns from
their farms, but it is certain that dollar
. wheat and corresponding high prices for
other cereals will not continue forever,
in which case the farmers in this section
will turn toward the keeping Of live stock.
They say that history repeats itself. We
can therefore assume that these grain
farmers who are mining the soil without
putting anything back will sooner or later
turn their attention toward the live stock
industry-just the thing that has been
central states.
Many farmers in this section have al
ready made good in the dairy business.
1t has now been demonstrated that by
planting peas, corn, carrots, beets, or in
fact most of the crops that can be Guilt
waited, having these crops follow wheat,
instead of allowing the land to lie fallow,
almost as large a yield of wheat will be
obtained the next season as when summer
following is practiced. This means that
the land will not be idle as much as it
has been in the past At the same time 1t
will provide labor for every month in the
year.
These crops make excellent cow feed
and wheat raisers are already turning
their attention to dairying as a side line
and in some cases it is becoming the main
line of farming in this section of the
country.
Marketing Dairy Products