Soil Builders Build Better Cattle
YOU TOO, like many others, may have been asking, “Just what do we mean when we say better soils; better for what?” Grazing on one soil may be better for growing the calves while on another soil it may be better for fattening older animals. Pastures are too commonly considered as good merely because they are providing considerable tonnage per acre of certain crops. We are coming, however, to see that feed quality depends on the soil fertility, and those cattlemen who are rebuilding and maintaining their soils are also building better cattle.
As agronomists, we have been juggling the various grazable crops into many schemes of crowded successions of them in their seasonal propriety. Then, too, when the better forages of longstanding reputation for high feed quality, like alfalfa and red clover that are commonly reputed to be “hard to grow,” have been failing, we have taken to the search for, and the importation of, other crops to replace them. If these immigrant substitutes produce tonnage where their predecessors fail in this measure, we seemingly hail the newcomer as a grand success.
Our eyes have been fixed on the crop, on its tons of forage, and on its bushels of grain. Our eyes and minds have not gone deeper. They have not looked below the crop to recognize the soil and its insufficient delivery of fertility as the possible reasons why bluegrass pasture, for example, does not come on early in the spring; why it fails to carry well into the summer before it becomes weedy; why alfalfa does not yield more heavily and last longer before grasses take it; and why the cattle and other livestock don’t do as well as they once did. Our measures of better pasture crops have been only quantitative. They must also be qualitative.
In feeding the cattle and other domestic animals, we have thought mainly of the question “How much?” and not often enough of “How well?” We have seen each pasture as a certain crop variety and the bulk it produces. We are just coming around to recognize that it is the soil and its fertility that determines the quality or nutritive value as feed which any crop variety can attain. We are coming to see that it is the better — the more fertile — soils that are the better grazing in terms of carrying more animals per acre, more animal growth per ton of feed, more animals in terms of better reproduction, and a better business in total.
Increased grazing pressure that brought a decline in soil fertility because of the decreasing return of organic matter to the soil has resulted in mesquite coming into this once cattleman’s paradise. The upper photograph was taken in 1903 while the same pasture as it appeared in 1943 is shown below.
— Photographs courtesy of U.S. Forest Service.
It has been the discriminating selection by the animals, as we observed them grazing one part of a field given soil treatments in preference to another not so handled, that has slowly brought us to think about using and depending more on the animal’s judgment of the quality of the forage. We have been slow to believe that a calf given the chance will make a cow of itself quickly. Yet for hogs we are generally following that very belief as Prof. J. M. Evvard of Iowa, the inventor of the self-feeder, gave it to us when he said, “If you will give the pig a chance it will make a hog of itself in less time than you will.”
Cow Before Plow in Westward March
We have been too prone to think of the grazing herds as mowing machines when, more significantly, they are physiologists and not economists or farm managers. They are not concerned with tonnage production per acre, nor are they disturbed by a slow rate of their laying on of fat. On the contrary, they are searching for mineral-rich, protein-rich forages that give good body growth, of strong bone, of much muscle and of fecund reproduction for maintenance of their species. We have failed to observe their breaking through the fence in the spring, not to go from one cultivated field to another, but instead to go from a cultivated field to the unfarmed highway and to the untilled railroad right-of-way where the virgin soils are growing grass crops that manufacture more than just woody bulk.
Our cattle are trying to tell us that, (a) the fertility of our soils is declining, (b) that crops are less proteinaceous and less mineral-rich as a consequence, and (c) that the better quality of the feeds must be grown into them from the soil and not thrown in from the chemist’s shop. They are passing judgment, quite different from the way we do, primarily on the soil and secondarily on the varieties of the crop.
Changes from Lowered Soil Fertility
The declining soil fertility has been responsible for shifts downward of the protein and mineral concentrations within the crops more common formerly. It has been responsible for shifts to newer kinds of them imported without recognition of the low fertility of the soils growing them indigenously. The declining soil fertility has been pushing the hard wheat, that is, the high-protein wheat, westward. It has brought the soft wheat, that is, the starchy or highly carbonaceous wheat, following behind it. It has pushed the cattle and the sheep, that is, the animals of highly lean carcasses, farther west. It has left the hogs, as highly fat carcasses, trailing them in this westward march of livestock.
When Kansas City recently became the major cattle market of the United States did it occur to you that declining soil fertility on the longer-farmed soils farther east meant that crops not higher in protein but consisting primarily of the carbohydrates high in fattening value became predominant. Lower levels of soil fertility in the more acid, and, therefore of necessity, less fertile, soils of the Eastern United States have pushed the grass-eating, domestic animals westward. It has crowded them more and more into that longitudinal soil belt where that native herbivorous feeder, the buffalo, had selected the soil fertility that grew him well and multiplied him to the large numbers in the thundering herds reported by the forty-niners. He was not a synthesizer of fats. He was a builder of bone and brawn.
Barley planted in this field was first grazed in the areas where the drill had turned around in finishing the corners thus nearly doubling the amount of fertilizer applied. These areas were grazed closely while the rest of the barley in the field was disregarded. This photograph was taken by E.M. Poirot, Golden City, Mo.
Take the soil map, if you will, of the United States and also the map of the population of Herefords to see on what soil areas they are concentrated. You will note that they and the hard wheat are together in our mid-continent. Do we not see that our less-leached, more calcareous soils give high-protein wheat, make mineral-rich and protein-rich other grasses, and thereby can grow animals — rather than merely put on fat — today as in the virgin past? Can we see a soil-fertility pattern outlining the growth-power for cattle and sheep centered in one natural soil area of lesser rainfall and less bulk of crops, while in another soil area of higher rainfall and much tonnage of forage per acre there is located the fattening power?
The soil-fertility picture on the map and the pattern of livestock distribution of the United States demonstrate the cattle growing themselves on the lime-laden, more fertile soils, or on those not highly leached, while they are fattening themselves on the acid or more severely leached soils. This same relation is verified in Argentina, in the Australia-New Zealand area, and in South Africa. All of these are in the temperate zones with the specific climatic soil pattern duplicating that of the United States.
Building Soils to Build Cattle
If it was the declining soil fertility, in spite of the calcium now going back in limestone in the eastern United States as correction for the increasing failures of legume crops, that started the beef cattle marching westward, we might well ask whether that march is still in progress. For a positive answer to this question one needs only recall that the grazing troubles, and breeding difficulties are not new today in what was once the buffalo plains. One needs only to recall bulls of impossible reproductive powers in verification.
Soils under the low annual rainfalls in the temperate zone have meant grass that grows animals efficiently. But it has also meant small annual tonnages in the crops of grass. Unfortunately we have not taken cognizance of the soil fertility conditions by which the virgin grass makes beef cattle grow well and reproduce well. Such nutritious grass is produced from the fertility released by mineral breakdown and by the decaying organic matter. It was stocked in the soil from the countless crops of virgin grasses that had dropped back to build up that rotating supply of nitrogen and mineral fertility. Rainfall is sufficient to decay the organic matter, but too little rain comes to break down much rock or minerals annually and to bring it out from the unavailable forms.
An early spring invitation to livestock is the green clover on one side of the fence. No temptation is offered by the broom sedge, still dry and drab, on the other side. Treatments that built up the soil to a level that would support clover made the difference. Photograph taken at the farm of James Evans in Boone County, Missouri.
This situation under intensive grazing means rapid depletion of the organic store of fertility. When cattle are harvesting the grass, they carry off its high-protein and high-mineral contents instead of allowing these to drop back to the soil in their cycle of keeping good grass growing by means of the organic matter assembly line of the soil.
Heavy Grazing Depletes Fertility
Increased grazing pressure on the “short grass” country is depleting rapidly the active fertility in the accumulated organic matter. Short-rooted grasses in shallow surface soils soon find too little nitrogen and mineral fertility from which they can manufacture their former high concentration of proteins and mineral complexes within themselves. In their stead there come deeply rooted plants. Those that can penetrate down extensively enough to find minerals sufficient for wood making in a sparse population of tree or bush crops, and being legumes, as many of them like the mesquite are for example, can provide enough nitrogen from the air and the little in the soil to give them their slow growth. Even in the grass country, the good grass, too, is on a westward march seemingly with the mesquite following in its trail.
Hereford Herd Built by Soil Builder
While our cattle population is seemingly being pushed westward as the declining fertility is crowding out the nutritious grass, and while mesquite and broom sedge are coming in, this is not the universal situation. There are plenty of cattle growers on farms where attention is going to the fertility of the soil.
The reader can think of some Here-ford breeder, perhaps, just as we can, who spent 50 or more years in building a wellknown herd. In his late years the man I have in mind found his cows becoming shy breeders. Their top lines suggested soreness in the back as it was up and the head down. Their coats were less glossy and, worst of all, less callers were coming to purchase his surplus.
His experience as a cattle breeder, through study of pedigrees and purchases of bulls, had built itself up well. But his appreciation of the declining soil fertility of his farm had not grown sufficiently for him to realize that while he was pushing his cattle breeding upward, the internal strength of his soil — the foundation supporting both him and his herd — was letting him down. It should have been no surprise that buyers of young Herefords were passing him by and going only a few miles farther to another Hereford herd. Perhaps we should say the same herd, since part of his herd was purchased by a novice farmer and hopeful cattlemen who as a city business man, found himself with some land suddenly on his hands.
This newcomer, who was started in the cattle business by this “old timer’s” surplus of one year, had treated the grassland as well as the tilled soil of his farm with limestone and other fertilizers. He brought his soil up to the fertility level that was needed to produce alfalfa. He was subscribing to the belief that mineral-rich, protein-rich forages would grow better cattle. He was convinced that if he built fertility into the soil it would build the cattle for him.
In testimony of the soundness of his judgment, his cows are not shy breeders. His entire calf crop comes during a short season. This simplifies management. His calves are a uniform lot. The animals are active, of good body lines, and easily kept in fine condition. He is filling the market now that his near-by colleague formerly filled. These two are cases where disregard of the soil fertility of his farm put one man out, while restoring and maintaining the soil fertility of his farm put the other man in and gave him the market reputation for that community. Building the soil built his cattle business.
Outgoing Fertility as Weeds Come
Weeds in our pastures are evidence of the neglect of the soils. They are crops that are manufacturing so little of feed value that the cattle disregard them. It is necessary to support the palatable herbage by soil fertility to enable these crops to manufacture what complexes of carbohydrate and protein nature the cattle must have in order to get energy and build their protein-containing tissues. When cattle are confined by fences, we need to appreciate our responsibility of providing all the nutrient essentials in such a limited area which the animals ranging over much more territory are collecting by means of their discriminating choices.
If the eye of the master is to fatten the flock, he must see (a) the fertility of the soil, (b) the nutritive quality of the herbage in terms of it, and (c) the selective grazing behaviors of the animals as they condemn or approve his judgment and management of the first two of these three essentials in cattle growing. He must see that the animals are selecting according to the nutrient values of the feeds and not according to the particular crop variety or the tonnage per acre.
We are thinking much about soil conservation as it is calling for grass cover to keep the soil from washing away. But when we ask the cows to eat that grass cover, it is far more important to think of the nutritive quality in terms of soil fertility of the soil growing that protection. If the soil is built up in fertility it will grow its own cover quickly. It will granulate itself. This improved soil structure lets water go in rather than off. Soil so improved holds its granular form in spite of the rain. It takes in more water. It extends the grazing season at both ends. It grows a feed of quality that makes healthier and more fecund animals.
If we are going to conserve our soil, the restoration of its fertility is the first step. By this we shall grow grass quickly and abundantly of such feed quality which grows cattle too. The conservation of the soil almost will be incidental. By starting to think and to work on the fertility, the men who build up their soils through a grass agriculture will be building up good cattle at the same time.