Economics of livestock production in Tennessee with special reference to West Tennessee

The primary objective of this study was to show the relationships of livestock in a cotton area to the farmer’s income. An attempt was made to show the importance of livestock production to agriculture in Tennessee as a whole; to make a reconnaissance study of the six type-of-farming regions in West Tennessee now growing considerable cotton, thus showing favorable and unfavorable factors there affecting livestock production; and finally to study in detail business records from a number of farms in a cotton producing area showing the relationships of livestock along with other factors affecting the income from these farms.

It was felt that by studying the contributions of livestock farms in an area primarily devoted to cotton production a definite appraisal could be made of the place of livestock on these farms. While these records are limited to type-of-farming Region 6, conditions are so similar in a large part of West Tennessee that the findings should be especially applicable in most of the cotton producing areas of the State, and to a lesser degree helpful in other areas.