Imperial Valley press., 1943-07-21
BY PETER EDSON

D1f re Eft EDSON
Farm goals for 1914 are now be-
ing determined by the War Food
Administrations of Ag-
riculture setup. They'll be an
nounced by the middle or end of
summer, beginning with the VIM
ter wheat acreage program which
must be determined by July in
time for first paintings.
Fixing of these farm crop quotas
to meet the war requirements is
about the most difficult RESPONSE
bility ever thrown on any govern
ment agency.
The success or failure of the
war effort may hang on these
decisions, which will be carried
right down to the individual far
mer-the number of head of live
stock he will farrOw next spring,
the number of poultry hatchings
he will figure on, the acreage of
each crop he will plant.
Then will come the big job of
persuading the farmers, through
their County War Boards, to grow
the crops needed. If the farmer
says he doesn't want to grow flax
because he never raised it before,
the proposition must be put up to
him that the linseed oil is needed
to the battleships or tanks.
Involved in the decisions to be
made are complicated factors of
the degree to which lifelong farm
ing habits can be changed, the re-
lative incomes to be derived from
different farm products, the mach
inery and equipment available to
handle special crops, the human
and animal food requirements, the
comparative nutritional values OF
various crop combinations, the labor
supply, the very future fertility of
the land itself if the usual crop
routines are to be changed apprecia-
bly,.
1t is easy, say the agricultural
economists, to sit down with paper
and pencil and figure what is need
ed or what should be done ideally
But t-lGt involves showing people
arouE1, ordering them to do thus
and so. The problem is to make
goals that are attainable in a
practical farm program that will
be acceptable to farmers.
Basic determination of the en-
tire program is TO balance the num-
Der of livestock with the available
feed supply. Boiled down, that
means devoting as much acreage as
possible to stock feed, in the light
of other farm crop needs and TAX
ing into consideration the amount
| OF feed grains that might be i'm
! ported from Canada, Australia, the
Argentine.
u. S. livestock population is
now over $50 million head Of cat
tie, sheep and hogs, over $40 mil
lion chickens. How muchc feed
can be raised to support how
much bigger a food animal pop
ulati0n?
And how many of each kind of
animals? If whole milk has a
higher priority as war food than
eggs or pork, shall dairy herds
get higher priority on feed sup
plies than chickens or pigs? And
at what weight shall the meat
animals be sent to market?
Choice and prime beef that pe0-
pie like is fattened and slaughter
ed heavy, but you get more
pounds Of lean per bushel Of
stOckfeed if the animals are
slaughtered light.
Similarly with pigs. If fattene'
to $50 pounds the farmer get
more money return for the corn h
feeds them than if he sells at 20
pounds. But the customers ge
more pork per bushel of corn if tn
pigs are sent to market at lighte
weight. Also, beef and sheep hav
an advantage over pigs in that the
will eat hay and pasture crop.
while pigs need corn. How Sha
these factors be controlled, if 8
all?
In the corn belt, the need fC
other essential farm crops-particu
larly soybeans-competes with cor
for acreage priority, and much
needed flax competes with whea
In areas where there is an estat
lished five-year crop rotation
corn, alfalfa, wheat, corn, alfal1
the system might be changed
a three-year cycle of corn, soybean
corn. That, however, would mir
the fertility of the soil and
would mean that the war had jol
we'll better end in 1946 so that
couple years of alfalfa could
planted to restore the land
More wheat might be grown II
the plains, but there is danger II
blowing up the hazardous lands
the loose soils west of MinnesOt;