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Show FARMING FOR PROFIT OR FUN? We have long believed that farming or ranching as a way of life is choice and unsurpassed. unsur-passed. And certainly this is true. Howevrr, farming is more than a way of life, it is also a means of livelihood a way of making a living. Few Indeed are the individuals who are farming or ranching purely pure-ly for enjoyment To most of us it Is a means of cash income. in-come. If we may then take as our basic premise, that our farming farm-ing operations are based upon the profit motive, we must agree that securing an Income Is of prime importance and that we ought to seek ways and means of Increasing our Income to compensate for the increasing costs of production. A group of young farmers meeting in Salt Lake City recently re-cently spoke for farmers throughout the state when they said that the greatest problem they now face Is the high cost of production and low return per unit of product ( Make no mistake about it, the cost-price squeeze is real and must be met Prices paid by farmers for goods and services ser-vices used in production have Increased sharply from what they were In the period 1947-49. 1947-49. By 1959 the cost of motor vehicles had Increased 47, farm machinery prices were up 53, building and fencing materials up 32-J and wage rates 43. Meanwhile, sugar beets, alfalfa hay, potatoes and grains were returning little lit-tle more than they did In 1947-49. Obviously the margin of profit remaining for the grower has declined, and one begins to wonder whether he is farming for a profit or Just as a hobby. Faced with the prospect of declining Income there are three avenues of escape opm to the gtwWei.-l, he may supplement sup-plement his farm income by finding employment In a non-farm non-farm job, or 2, he may extend his operation over more acres, hoping to secure a living wage even at the reduced Income In-come per unit of product The third alternative is to Increase In-crease the efficiency of pro- duction on his own operation, producing each unit of product pro-duct at a reduced cost per unit and thus securing for himself a margin of profit in spite of increasing costs of production or decreasing selling price. And, interestingly enough, whether he chooses route 1 or 2, he may also take full advantage ad-vantage of route 3 as a means of additional income. Fertilizers can be an aid to higher yields and more profitable profit-able crops. Within reasonable limits the total nutrient requirements re-quirements of the good crop yields are available to the grower. It must be determined what contribution the soil will make toward these total plant food requirements. It is necessary nec-essary then to take inventory of what is available in the soil of a particular field In question. Knowing the amount am-ount needed and the inventory of what is on hand, it is not difficult to determine the fertilizer fer-tilizer In kind and amount to make up soil deficiencies. The field or soil inventory ca." b? accomplished by a soil lest The soil test coupled with a knowledge of previous crops grown and any manure applications for the current or past years can pinpoint quite well the supply of nutrients available in the soil. From this, the extra need of nitroger can be determined to meet the yield goal established. establish-ed. General fertilizer recom mendations can't possibly be as exact or accurate as fertilizer ferti-lizer recommendations based on a soil test The application of needed fertilizers is not an expense but an investment From the nutritional stanaint the crop yield is limited by the supply or level of the most deficient de-ficient plant nutrient which is usually nitrogen or phosphate. phos-phate. It is particularly Important to apply the specifically needed need-ed fertilizer to the right soils or field. All commercial fertilizers are required to be labeled. A chemical analysis is required by law arid must be shown on a tag or on a bag of commercial commer-cial fertilizer. This analylsls will give the total nitrogen, the available phosphate, and the water soluble potash that is in the fertilizer. By observing observ-ing the labels a fertilizer purchaser pur-chaser can tell first if the fertilizer fer-tilizer contains the nutrient or nutrients, he wants, and second, sec-ond, the quantity that he will be gttnir per 300 pounds: In general, the product that has the cheapest cost per pound of N or would would be the most convenient to use, Is the one purchased. |