By F.H. Jeter,
Extension Editor, N.C. State College, as published in the Aug. 25, 1949 issue
of the Sanford Herald
The folks are saying that North Carolina farmers bought over
5,000 Holstein cows, grade and purebred, from Wisconsin, Canada, or from any
other place that they could be found in 1948.
One man from Robeson County wanted to get started in the
dairy business so badly that he went after a plane load himself and brought
them back in one day.
If a man lives along the milk route, well and good. If he
doesn’t, he skims the cream from his milk, keeps the skim milk at home for his
pigs and chickens, and pockets the $25 a month that he gets from the sale of
sour cream. That’s not big income, of course, but he is no big operator. Such
men grow tobacco or other cash crops and depend for their main farm income on
these crops. The income from milking three or four cows is extra. It’s gravy,
so to speak.
North Carolina has been earning lots of gravy in the last
few years as men who own land find that they can milk cows, keep pigs, raise
chickens, and yet grow the same crops that they always did. One is surprised
that they have not done this long ago.
The average tobacco allotment in North Carolina is not over
4 acres to the farm. That doesn’t use much land. It is true that a peak load of
hard work occurs when the crop is to be planted, when it is topped and
suckered, and again when it is harvested, cured, and sorted. Even so, tending
only 4 acres of tobacco does not use the whole time of the family to advantage.
Therefore, it is becoming increasingly easy to get a cow or
two and start a small milking herd. The milk route comes down the highway right
by the front door and the checks come back each two weeks. They help to put the
family on a cash basis.
Keeping cows is not such hard work, especially if one sells
grade “C” milk for processing purposes. It’s a little more difficult when the
change is made to grade “A”. This difficulty is rewarded by the premium price
paid for such milk and the difference in price will soon pay for the grade “A”
barn required. North Carolina built more of those grade “A” barns last year
than any other state east of the Mississippi River, and that includes New York,
Pennsylvania, and some of the other dairy states. The little Tar Heel county of
Alleghany alone built over 100.
Again, keeping cows is not such work because of the new
pasture crops being developed. The people of Davidson are calling their Ladino
clover, orchard grass, and fescue pasture “acres of diamonds” now because of
the wonderful grazing afforded. There are also winter grazing mixtures
comprised of small grains, rye grass, and crimson clover. Then there are summer
grazing crops such as lespedeza, soybeans, and kudzu. If a man arranged his
rotation properly, he could keep his cows grazing for almost 12 months and they
would hold up in milk flow in winter. Some men who have tried it say that
winter grazing crops will provide more milk than a summer pasture.
As these new things continue to spread over North Carolina
and acre production is increased, the folks make up their minds to live better.
That’s one of the great accomplishments of recent years. A farm family is no
longer concerned with farming to make a living. It is primarily concerned with
living better on the farm. That’s why one hears so much these days about yard
beautification, running water, central heat, closet space, and the latest
comforts of good living. Small fruits, berries, and grape vines will be planted
this winter about many a farm home because the owners think that these are just
as important as wide fields of crops.
If one were to keep a record of the shows and sales of
purebred hogs, cows, and poultry, he would find that something of this kind is
occurring almost every day. The fat stock shows have proved that North Carolina
can grow and feed as fine a quality of beef as can be produced in the mid-West.
It is a fact that buyers from that part of the country have begun to come to
this state to get breeding blood of almost all kinds of livestock.
BETTER CORN HELPS
Keeping cows is not such hard work because folks are
learning how to grow corn. It’s no novelty to grow 100 bushels to the acre
since the new five-step plan was adopted and since the folks have learned about
hybrid seed and ample fertilization. Just plant so as to have so many corn stalks
on the land and then feed the corn so that it will produce 100 bushels. It’s
almost a matter of simple arithmetic. Randolph County has over 100 farmers who
are members of North Carolina’s famed 100 Bushel Corn Club.
It’s hard to find good cows. That’s one of the great
troubles about this expanding dairy business. Not only are prospective dairymen
buying cows where they can find them, but they have begun to raise their dairy
calves. It used to be smart to sell them for veal. Now the really smart man raises
them as replacements in his own herd or to sell them to neighbors.
These new cows raised at home can be a good blood because a
chapter of the artificial breeding association has been organized in most of
the counties where the livestock population will warrant such interest. This
means that the man with only two or three cows can use the latest breeding
methods to build up the quality of his future cattle.
IMPROVING ROW CROPS
Lots of men are not looking for cows. They are looking for
ways in which to control the black shank or other plant diseases in their
fields. They are dusting their peanuts to control leaf spot or treating the
seed so that they may get a full stand at the first planting.
They are testing out new chemical poisons for boll weevil so
that they may get back into the cotton game successfully. Some 451 cotton
growers entered the five-acre contest in 1948 and produced over 800 pounds of
lint cotton per acre. They learned a lot about closer spacing, better
fertilizing, and boll weevil control
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