Norwich bulletin., 1918-05-15
LIVE STOCK FARM, MANAGEMENT
Serious Mistakes Through Both Under
 stocking and Overstocking.

| Overstocking or understanding a
 farm under normal conditions are
 serious mistakes. What constitutes
 overstocking? What is understoek- ing?
 | A farm overstocked when the. stock
 carried use up all produce raised on the farm and much must be bought l The high grade as well as low grade
 feeds are utilized in producing low
 profit products.
 A farm is understocked when
 pasture, 7stover, straw, etc, low grade
 products, are not all utilized in feeding
 stock, and a loss in feed as well as
 slackening of productive labor occurs | in winter.
 All forms of the live stock industry
 are carried on primarily on cheap 1 feed and by means of cheap labor. If I a farm is overstoeked it follows that
 most of the labor is being utilized on
 products that in general are produced
 on very low. margin of profit. On
 the other hand if most of the time is
 spent in crop productions, there is
 waste of many low grade products | produced on every farm. such as
 poorer grades of hay, corn stalks, straw, etc, and the farmer is more
 over not likely to be kept busy the
 whole year.
 | Most of the hens are produced on | farms with f1ocks of less than a hun
 dred which means that they can pick up a large part of their living on the farm.
 Most of the dairy products of the country are produced by herds of six | to ten cows using primarily unstable products for feed. Beef stock is main tained till the finishing period on
 pasture or range. cheap feed. Hogs, even in the corn belt, are being pro duced more commonly than before on 1 pasture, good grain being, utilized only to fatten. Sheep in the east are I usually grown in small f1ocks as scavengers. Colts are raised where horses are busy only part of the year. The work on all these products
 is very largely done with home labor,
 women, children, and the farmer him. | self, after nearly a full days work in | the field
 This vast amount of stock kept in
 small focks or herds. on low grade
 products and handled with cheap labor controls in a great measure the price, | (We have only to note the sudden drop in the potato market and the
 reason for it to realize that the small
 producers will control the price)
 This means then that the man who
 is overstocked must feed high priced | feeds and use high priced labor and
 compete directly with the small pro
 ducer using only cheaper feeds and | cheaper labor. It means also that the
 man who is understocled fails to
 utilize unstable products which means a direct loss. What shall we do to
 remedy either condition?
 On most general farms it will re-
 quire one COW or her equivalent for each or 6 acres of crops to use up
 the low grade or waste products, straw, stover, swale hay, soft corn, etc. With that number of stock many of our Connecticut farms would have very few cows We are primarily hay and dairy state. Because of the
 advantage of good markets our farms might profitably be more heavily stocked even to the expense of one COW or equivalent to each acres of crops. What then of the other stock? | So far as hogs are concerned the
 feed used by them is rarely fed to
 ather stock. Practically every farmer
 has waste sufficient to grow one or
 two hogs. and home grown hog is by far cheaper than grocer hog" Very l little other feed than that picked up is
 necessary for a farm flock of hens, except in winter. 4 colt can be
 raised once in q while provided 1t
 comes when work for the mare is least. But on a farm stocked to
 capacity with dairy COWS, for every seven sheep added one dairy COW must | De subtracted. On those farms less heavily stocked, sheep may be added to advantage. and few few sheep kept when large flock could be kept
 at a probable loss. The high prices i for wool and lambs may offset this for
 a few years, and make larger f1ocks l pay.
 l It is safe to say that beef and sheen are usually as proita ble as dairy cows on poorer land and distant from a railroad
 One of the most profitable types
 of farming in the east is dairying combined with hay and other cash crops" It is safer and usually pays