The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1926-04-16
The Relation of Sugar Beet
Culture to The Future of
States Livestock Industry

beet growing areas Of northern Col
OradOy and the possibilities Of devel-
Oping the livestock feeding industry
in Montana, MI. Vinke says:
Although most ranchers in the
sugar beet districts raise beets prim-
arily as a cash crop and produce &C
reages every year in proportion to
the probable cash income, there is a
very important relationship between
this cash crop and the %fattening Of
livestock other than that Of main
tanning fertility to produce greater
yields of beets. A careful inspection
Of the beet districts of Colorado
brought out the fact that many
ranchers raise beets in order to OBJ
tain by-prOducts for fattening live
stock, a practice directly opposite to
the rather popular recommendation
to raise livestock to increase soil fer
tiIity. The raising of sugar beets
must be considered as a cash crop en-
terprise, but the very fact that one
raises beets opens the way to another
enterprise, that Of feeding livestock,
which often has proved more profit
able, under Colorado conditions, than
the beet crop itself.
According to numerous feeding ex-
perminets at the Colorado Expert
ment Station, one ton of beet pulp
has a feeding value equal to 139
pounds of corn plus 351 pounds of
alfalfa; one ton of beet mOIasses has
a feeding value equal to one ton of
shelled corn, and the tops from an &C
re yielding II tons of beets have a
feeding value equal to one ton of al
falfa hay. Applying these figures to
! the 1925 beet crop in the three Mon
tana districts, very interesting figures
are brought out.
From the $4,000 acres of beets
grown last year, approximately 49,
600 acres of tops, 72,171 tons Of
pulp and 1851 tons of discarded mo.
lasses were produced. The feeding
value of these ~by-prOducts is equal tC
63,512 tons of corn and $4,000 tons
of alfalfa. Figuring corn at $50 {
ton and alfalfa at $40 a ton, the val
ne Of these b%y-prOducts produced il
Montana last year amounted to $7O7,
$50. Since the cash return from the
entire beet crop was approximately
$2,3O9,5OO, the b~y-prOducts were
worth SO per cent as much as thu
beets. 1t is true, of course, that thu
farmer must make some outlay 70.
his share of the pulp and mOlasses
but the actual cost of the by-prO
ducts delivered on the farms would
not exceed S214,0OO, which is abOu
20 per cent Of their actual feeding
value.
"In Montana there were approx
mately 1900 cattle and 5000.
lambs fed on beet by-prOducts durin
the past season. On the basis of tn
wet pulp supply of 1925 alone, j
Montana feeders would follow tn
successful practices used in Colorado
they could have fed $4,000 cattl
and $4,000 lambs. AS it is the me
lasses produced in the state is no
being fed and many of the beet top
are left in the field,
Montana has a number of advar
tages and disadvantages as a potter
tial feeding country as compared wit
Colorado.
Colorado has a slight advantage
having the Denver market close {
hand. However, during the past SCI
son $4,000 steers we're fed in tral
sit in two of the Colorado BET
growing districts, which means tn;
these steers will be marketed at Gel
trail markets, rather than at Denve
The Denver market draws most
the butcher stock while the fat Gait
and a large part of the lambs al
sold in the middle west. Colorado
a little closer to central markets b
this advantage is rather slight. c
the other hand many of the feede
in Colorado feed lots are bought