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PROBLEMS IN FOOD PRODUCTION
DURING THE WAR

TUESDAY FORENOON SESSION

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MEAT AS A FACTOR IN FOOD PRODUCTION DURING THE WAR

H. J. GRAMLICH, LINCOLN

     This is a very important subject which has been assigned me. It is a subject which has two sides. Some of us feel that animal production should be curtailed because of the fact that grains make more human food when fed direct to people than when fed into the animal and the meat products then consumed by people. Be this as it may, we must have meat products. The Government demands meat and there is a big shortage of fats of all kinds at the present time. Many of the fats are derived from animals, although some substitutes are worked in at the present time. We must not reduce our breeding herds too much, because as soon as the war is over, we will need animals. In a short time it will be easy to get the grains back to a normal supply, but in the case of animals it will take years to get them back to a normal pre-war basis. Five years is probably the minimum time in which this can be accomplished.

EXTENSIVE PORK PRODUCTION NECESSARY

     The problem under consideration today is that of finishing animals for the market. As 1 said before it is a two-sided problem. It takes considerable grain to put fat on hogs. Normally it requires four pounds of grain to make one pound of pork. This looks wasteful of grain; however, we must have meat and fat and it can only be produced by feeding. With the large amount of low grade corn available at the present time for hog feeding, (most of it, I presume, containing 20 per cent water), we are warranted in feeding four pounds of grain, together with a small amount of tankage, to produce each pound of pork.

STEERS EXTRAVAGANT USERS OF GRAIN

     I will admit that I am on the fence regarding beef production. The steer is rather an expensive gainer. He will require a larger number of pounds of feed to produce one pound of grain than the hog. It requires close to eight pounds of corn and six pounds of

alfalfa hay to make one pound of increase in weight. The steer requires practically double what the hog requires to produce a pound of gain. He is rather an expensive animal.

It required approximately 8 pounds of corn and six pounds of alfalfa hay to
produce each pound of increased weight on a good type of steer

USE OF BY-PRODUCTS IN STEER FEEDING

     An important question at present is whether a steer can be fattened on less corn and more substitutes. Will they make good killers without so much corn by using a large proportion of roughage and some by-products? It has been proven that silage, with one of the protein byproducts, such as cottonseed meal, will produce a good commercial carcass. We have steers here at the College that were fed 52 days and produced three pounds of gain daily without a kernel of corn other than that derived from the silage. They had all the alfalfa they wished, but it took only a small amount to satisfy their appetite--perhaps two pounds per day. With this they consumed 60 pounds of other feed, mostly silage.

     There are a number of available by-products. Silage should not be classed as a by-product if it contains good corn. If we removed the ears from the corn at the time it is placed in the silo, then silage

would be a by-product. Normally, silage from mature corn, contains five bushels of corn per ton. At present grain prices we must look upon silage as rather expensive.

     There are corn mills where several by-products are produced. Some of these products are used in the feeding of live stock. Perhaps some of you do not realize the magnitude of the corn milling industry. I am informed that one establishment in Iowa alone grinds 20,000 bushels per day. From every bushel of that corn a considerable amount of by-product results, which is sold back to feeders. Many feeders in Nebraska buy and utilize the resultant hominy and gluten feeds for cattle feeding.

      Another by-product of corn is corn oil cake, which is extracted from the germ. The corn itself contains around 4 per cent oil. The factories which are extracting this oil get something like 20 cents a pound for it. They obtain very close to 50 cents worth of oil from a bushel of corn. Undoubtedly the corn market has been going up partially because of the demands of the mills in Iowa and eastern states, calling for corn for grinding purposes. It appears that the by-products of the corn kernel must be given much more attention than they have received in the past. Some feeders are contracting for as much as 100 tons of corn by-product and using it as a substitute for corn.

     People who say we should not be fattening steers because we need all of the corn for human use, must remember that cattle feeders should have some right to buy by-products. I am ready to admit that we can utilize them to good advantage. We are already to some extent. To give an illustration, in some work conducted at the Iowa station this year, it was shown that corn oil cake, which is the by-product of the corn germ after the oil has been extracted, can be substituted for tankage, and fed with a slightly reduced corn ration.

     We have found that hominy as a feed will not entirely take the place of corn; that hogs will not make as much gain on hominy as on corn. There must be some corn in the ration. We found that some of the hominy fed to hogs will take the place of corn. In other words, corn can be saved by substituting some hominy in the ration.

     By using some by-product of the kernel we are able to reduce the corn consumption in making one pound increase in weight. Hominy itself is not a complete substitute, only a partial substitute. Corn oil cake used in the fattening of hogs is a partial substitute for tankage as well as corn, and so on with the other feeds which are on the market at the present time. Of course some by-products, such as oil meal, cottonseed meal, shorts, and other feeds, are largely looked upon in the nature of being concentrated feeds. We have always used them to a limited extent.

     Formerly a man living out some distance from town would not

think of selling his corn, taking it to town and hauling back some of the by-products for his stock. The neighbors would have said that he had gone crazy. Now a man living a reasonable distance from town, under certain conditions, is justified in selling his corn and buying by-products. If he can buy by-products at the same figure as he can corn and if they will take the place of corn, there are reasons from a patriotic standpoint why he should do it.

     Exponents of live stock production try to look at the subject in a broad light. We admit the steer is an extravagant gainer. In fact, most of us do not relish the extra fat that is found on his ribs. Go into the meat market and the larger portion of the fat on the steer is cut away, whereas the fat on the hog is a very essential part.

     We are not trying to defend this policy, not trying to defend feeding grain. Neither are we trying to defend the practice of not fattening steers. It is an industry we must not ignore. We need beef right now, The feeders of today are up against the biggest problem they have confronted for a number of years. They do not know how to size up the situation properly.

     1 was in one man's feeding yards the other day. He had 650 head of big cattle, costing him 11 1/2 cents a pound last fall. He thought the prospects looked very fair. He had allowed them to run in the corn field since early in November. He had cleaned up 350 acres of corn with these cattle. Perhaps some years ago he would have been thought foolhardy and we would have expected foundered cattle, but he has gone through something like 70 days' feeding without a single loss. He had them accustomed to corn before turning them into the field. Now, that man has cattle weighing around 1,400 pounds, which are ready to go to market, yet today he is rather blue about the market. You say he ought not to have paid so much for them. We do not know what a fair value for feeding animals is. They were too high probably, and yet farmers and feeders made the market. They made it because they outbid the packers to get that class of steers. I cannot say that I am in favor of the practice of keeping them out till they are so highly finished as some of you are making them. Perhaps the market next year will he more satisfactory. We hope so. The feeder is up aganst (sic) a bad proposition at the present time. The thing that is giving them such a cloudy outlook is the corn market soaring way out of proportion to what it has been before. With corn 45 cents higher than it was a year ago and of a much poorer quality, and with thin stock costing almost double, a feeder certainly is confronted by a serious problem.

     Now, I have wandered around in my talk considerably. Perhaps some of you may have points concerning which you wish to inquire--

     MR. HOPT: How much of the animal fat is used for war purposes? Is that one of the reasons for encouraging the raising of hogs now?

     MR. GRAMLICH: That is one of the factors that enters largely into the demands for fats, to increase substances which may be used for munition purposes, if I am correctly informed.
HOG FAT MORE VALUABLE THAN TALLOW

     Tallow from the sheep or steer is only bringing around 14 cents a pound, whereas lard is up to 35 cents a pound. Witness the instance of a steer three years old being slaughtered, having a layer of fat two or three inches thick all the way around his body. The principle of feeding that steer to so ripe a stage is wrong. It is not practical because who in the world wants so much fat? People cut

Excessively fattened beef. Too much tallow for most tastes

away a large portion of that fat. But with the hog the proposition is different. The fat is utilized. There is no waste to the fat of the hog. There cannot be so much fat on the hog that it cannot be utilized. We often see layers of fat from three to four inches deep

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