ABSTRACT
Most people of the world utilize their crop residues for uses as varied as burning straw or stalks for cooking and heating to using them in construction materials and clothing. Because of increases in farm mechanization and the concurrent increases in farm size, crop residues have tended to lose their traditional values in the central US Rather than being an asset, crop residues have become a disposal problem for the cash grain farmer during the past three decades. Cash grain farming is a high-risk enterprise with both weather and prices creating volatility of income. Crop residues from 2 acres of corn or sorghum will, on the average, support a cow and wean a calf. Gross income will be increased by the value of the calves weaned, thus reducing the volatility of the grain farms' cash flow. Timing of the operations necessary to the cow-calf program is the most important of all management considerations in the utilization of crop residue.
