Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1923-01-27
G. L. Birmingham Writes of
Trip to State
SAYS IDAHO HAS
BEST OF FEEDS
Farmers Have Advantages Over the
Eastern Producers and Are
Assured of Stable Mar
ket-Buy Cows

Idaho as a dairy state appeals to
the eastern dairy cattle breeders and
specialists. The really great author
titles in this line who visited the state
of Idaho last summer at the invita-
tion of Ex-Governor Davis have had
many things (all favorable) to say
in regard to the enormous possibili-
ties Of Idaho as a great dairy center,
I but possibly no more clear and con-
else statements have been made than
are contained in an article in the
September issue OF the Ayrshire Di-
gest, by c. l.. Birmingham, secretary
OF the Ayrshire Breeders Association
of the United States, who is also the
editor of the publication.
The article in its entirety is too
lengthy for complete reproduction
in these columns, although it is well
worthy of it, but we take the liberty
of quoting from It literally. Some
of the statements made will tend to
open the eyes of our Mountain Home
ranchers:
Ten years ago Idaho did her farm
ing ION horseback" and the grocer's
tin can COWS" furnished her milk
supply AS dairy farming section
she was a great sheep ranch. Now
the dairy COW is honored with official
recognition, and a unique dairy pro-
motion campaign is sanctioned and
personally directed by the chief ex-
ecutiye of the state.
Ten men from seven different
states spent the week Of August 7th
in Idaho at the invitation of Cover
nor Davis as the guests of the state.
They represented the teaching, man
ufacturing, advertising, investiga-
tional breeding, and breed promo
tion activities of dairying. Accom-
panied by farmers in each commun-
ity visited, they spent six days tray-
cling from farm TO farm, making
about $50 miles through the irrigat-
GU httAiOu u lnt oldhN IAANEl
ley. They soon convinced themselves
of the dairy possibilities there, and
in their enthusiasm made the best
claims Of Idaho herself appear con-
seryative. They saw farms where
cattle Craze luxuriant pasture nine
months of the year, where alfalfa
yields from four to seven tons per
acre, where corn makes a growth so
great that one of the party was ac-
cused of examining it TO make GER
tain it was not spliced. This corn
produces Is to 20 tons of silage per
acre. Sunfowers nearly double that
tonnage, and are recommended by
those who have fed the silage to be
as valuable as corn. Wheat fields
threshing 60 to 80 bushels per acre
we're common, and barley, to add
carbohydrates to the alfalfa-silage
ration, balanced the rotation.
Only one thing was found wanting
"a uniform, certain market. That
accounts for the fact that the hay
produced on this land, shipped to
Central, Western and even Eastern
States, can be fed profitably and the
,utter and cheese shipped back to
he very communities which pro-
luced the alfalfa
The alfalfa on which dairy cows
1000 miles away returned a profit at
80 per ton sold as low as $4 in Ida
10 last year, and much is still held
n large outdoor stacks on many
arms. It was estimated that it costs
,6, 400 to ship enough alfalfa to the
fiddle West to produce a carload of
utter, on which the freight rate
rom Idaho would be only $3.50.
That is the condition the governor
eeks to improve by encouraging
airying. He realizes, as any one
oes who translates carloads of hay
ITO the equivalent in tons of butter
nd cheese, that the dairy COW, by
ondensing the roughages of the ir-
igated farms to finished product,
an save great percentage of the