Searching for Animal Feed

March 2, 1933  Strong wind.  Mama, Jacob, and I went 55 miles southwest to buy kafir corn.  Paid 29 cents per 100 lbs.  Mary sewed.  In the evening we went to Mother.

A severe drought had hit the entire Great Plains in the summer of 1932, so the 1932 harvest had been very poor for virtually all farmers.  Now as the Siemens were nearing the end of winter 1932-1933, they were running out of feed for the animals.  Normally, they could buy all they needed in the Meade area, but this day they had driven 55 miles to the southwest, that is to the area of Tyrone, Okla., where they found kafir corn.  No doubt they had stopped at many farms along the way, asking if anyone had feed for sale.  Imagine them returning to Meade in their dusty Model A car, Jake driving, Cornelius in the passenger seat in his worn suit coat that he wore for work, and Margaret in the back seat in her somber dress with a tiny flower print, pulling a trailer piled high with kafir-corn grain.  The year 1933 was already shaping up to be a difficult one.

Kafir corn is not corn at all but is a grain sorghum that is cheaper but less nutritious than regular corn.  It was brought to the US from southern Africa and was popular until the 1950s, when it was replaced by milo, to which it is similar.  Kafir has to be harvested and processed by hand, but milo can be combined.

Kafir corn.  Notice the milo-like grain heads on a corn-like plant.