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Show Soil Fertilizer a Factor in Utah Alfalfa Crop j Alfalfa Is the major forage crop in Utah, with more than 4(K),000 acres harvested each year. About one-third of the total cropped land of the state is devoted to the production of this all-important feed. Many factors influence alfalfa al-falfa yields insects, disease, moisture, salt but one of the most important factors is soil fertility. Fertilizer experiments ex-periments conducted by Utah State University show that phosphorus is the most efficient effi-cient plant nutrient for alfalfa. alfal-fa. The average production per acre in Utah is about 2.6 tons. When the farmer considers con-siders all of his fixed costs in producing alfalfa, he finds he is not making any profit at this production level he's barely breaking even. All it takes to put himself In a profit pro-fit position is a slight additional addi-tional expenditure for fertill- zer. Fertility studies prove that increased yields boost profits at a much faster rate thr.n corresponding boost in production costs. For example, a 67 per cent increase in yield results, on the average, in more than 900 per cent increase in-crease in profit .It all boils down to this: The farmer must increase his yield above the break-even point, for this is where profit begins. Field studies conducted at Harper, Box Elder County, showed that 160 pounds of phosphate on a deficient soil Increased the farmer's gross return from $30.40 per acre (no phosphate added) to $91.-60 $91.-60 per acre (after cost of fertilizer fer-tilizer deducted.) On a 100-acre 100-acre field, this would mean an increase of more than 56,000 by using phosphate fertilizers. In addition, on the plot where 160 pounds of available phosphorus per acre were applied, ap-plied, the phosphorus content of the alfalfa went up 30 per cent, and the protein content 18 per cent. These quality factors are extremely important impor-tant in milk and beef production. produc-tion. In a California study, steers fed alfalfa hay that was high in phosporus actually gained more than two pounds per day. Another group of steers, same breed, age, weight and quality, were fed low phosphorus phos-phorus hay and gained only one-half pound per day. After the study was complete, the results showed It had- taken 2,130 pounds of low-phosphorus hay to put on 100 pounds of weight on the steers, whereas where-as only 940 pounds of high-phosporus high-phosporus hay were required for the same weight gain in the other group of steers. In other words, each ton of high-phosphorous high-phosphorous hay resulted in more than twice as much meat as the low-phosphorus phosphorus content in alfalfa also fights off a num- ber of diseases afflicting cattle, cat-tle, according to a recent Utah State University bulletin. The bulletin tells of a report on a particular disease parturient partur-ient hemoglobinemia which afflicts cows. It is caused by a low-phosphorus diet. The study revealed that the phosphorus phos-phorus content of alfalfa on 19 farms where the disease oc-cured, oc-cured, was .15 per cent Alfalfa Alf-alfa grown on soils adequately adequate-ly supplied with phosphorus contained .20 to .25 per cent phosphorus. The study further ? revealed that the use of fertilizer fer-tilizer on forage crops goes a long awy. towards preventing this disease. For top yields, quality and maximum profits on alfalfa, or any other crops grown In Utah, the importance of adequate ade-quate phosphate in the soil , cannot be stressed enough. |