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Show the TTTTTTAH basin farmer 1 Business Why You Should Diversify Your Farming When Agricultural writers and Economists write or talk of about DIVERSIFYING, they mean PRODUCING a VARIETY LIVESTOCK CROPS and LIVESTOCK or PROFITABLE Of course, it is quite possible to diversify by producing a variety of crops or livestock that are not profitable but the fanner is in business to make money and his chief interest is to produce the crops and livestock that make him money. PRO-DUCT- S. ONE CROP FARMING HAS SERIOUS DISADVANTAGES Here in the Uintah Basin many of us depend almost entirely on alfalfa Seed. Alfalfa seed is probably the best single crop, for a big part of the Basin. It has made a great deal of money for a lot of farmers. Yet a farm that produces alfalfa seed only, is laboring under some very serious handicaps. There may be a failure of the crop. In that case there is no income for the year. A storm just at harvest time may destroy a fourth or even a half of the crop. There may be a big overproduction. In that case some one has to carry the crop into another season. If dealers carry it, they must buy cheaply enough to pay carrying charges and still expect to get out. If the grower carries it he cannot get much money to run on. if the crop is good and the market good, there is no real income until the crop is sold. The farmer has to live and run his farm until that time. Very likely he will be owing a big part of the value of his crop at the time he sells it so that he has only a little money left to carry him into the next season. Evien Then when it comes to handling his crop if he has enough to makjer him a years living and expenses, he "has to step out, hire high priced harvest help to take care of it in good time. That harvest help alone usually takes from ten to forty per cent of the crop. Worse yet, it is very likely that during a large part of the growing season the farmer himself has periods during the summer when he has very little to do and is simply boarding against harvest timel Continuous seed farming seems to be running a lot of fields quite weedv, so that the crops are not strictly high quality as they should be for the good of the Uintah Basin seed industry itself. A general crop failure or a very poor market would work a serious hardship on the entire population of the Uintah Basin. It would bring about business failures among the people who supply farmers with food and clothing and with credit to operate on because they could not collect money to pay their bills. We the J. G. Peppard Seed Company are here to help you to grow alfalfa seed and to handle it and to buy it and market it for you. Thats our business, or our job. At the same time, we want our friends to make money every year, improve their farms, raise better seed, and as nearly as possible to have about the same quantity and the same quality of alfalfa steed every year. ADVANTAGES OF DIVERSIFICATION Intelligent diversification in the business of farming means adding more profitable farm crops and more profitable livestock to the farm enterprise. It may mean substituting other crops for some of the alfalfa acreage, rotation of crops, and a general working over of the entire farm. The flour mill at Roosevelt is practically shut down for lack of wheat The mill at Duchesne is hauling wheat from Vernal. Most of our me!rcham1$ have to get a big part of their flour from outside the Basin. Most any Uintah Basin farmer could break up ten acres of weedy alfalfa for wheat in the fall. The harvest will come at mid summer when his seed crop does not need attention. Ten acres of wheat at 30 bushels per acre is 300 bushels and usually three hundred dollars. Harvest and threshing expense may be $75.00, leaving $225.00 worth of wheat. Bigger yields are not unusual. Ten acres of oats on spring plowing may very well make 600 bushels or 18000 pounds. They are usually worth $1.50 per cwt., in the fall or $2.25 per cwt. in the spring. Thats $240.00 in the fall or $360.00 in the spring when a fanner needs money for water assessments and to run on. Shelled com is usually worth from $2.00 to $2.50 per cwt. here. A few farmers are making money growing com. Com goes in rather late in the spring. The cultivations come during the late in the fall. The stalks if early summer. The harvest-com- es cut, make a lot of feed. If they are not cut they furnish a surprising amount of winter pasture. Theh, PTowin these crops keep your land busy when you break up the alfalfa that is getting old and weedy. That leaves only your best alfalfa for seed and you can take betteir care of it and usually get more money pter acre from it because it makes more and better seed. Putting in these crops is only a start toward real diversification. From six to ten dairy cows will convert some of these grain crops into money right on the place with returns coming in every week. Right along with the grain they will use up the com fodder, some of thfe straw and quite a lot of alfalfa pummy. A dozen calves will put in all their time turning rough feed info money for vou. A good brood sow or two, and their litters will turn your skim milk into cash and with a little grain to finish on, makje you nice marketable hogs at small expense. A small flock of sheep on a farm is surprisingly profitable when you figure what it takes to keep them. Many Uintah Basin farmers make a lot of money on turkeys. Bees work long seasons here. There ate three mighty nice things about this diversified farming One of them is this the farmer can arrange his affairs so that each item takes time when the others do not. Thus he can do nearly all of the work on his He does not place himself. have to hirte so much help at harvest wages because he does not have so much at stake at any one time. He earns his own money and does not have to pay it out. Another is this he has something to sell every little while. With his own money coming in, he does not have to borrow or run bills in order to livte'. He need not owe anyone very much at any time and he need not worry about how he is going to pay past due bills. The third and sometimes it seems the greatest of all is the distribution of risk. A failure or even a poor market for the only crop, is a mighty bad thing to have happen. The cotton growing south, for instance, has had just about as bad times with bumper crocs as it has had with failures. If there are six or eight crops or products, all different and coming at different seasons of the year, the chance of losing all of them is very slight indeed. If one or two of them strike a poor market the chances are that the market for the others will be fair or good. The advantages of diversification are mainly these: Distribution of labor through the year so that the farmer has (1) time to make each crop a good crop and do nearly all of his own worKi of his income ovter the year enables him to keep out of debt and have MONEY of HIS OWN in as he needs coming Hi (3) Distribution of the farmers risk so that a failure in one crop or loss at harvest time will not lose his whole seasons work and income. regularly mae UL1 Basin farming pav more, and pay more J.'G, Duchesne Roosevelt Vernal 0 |