Sara's Survival Tactic in the Dust Bowl

Sara Bearden

May 3, 2015

Surviving The Winter in the Dust Bowl Argumentation

The time period in which I have to survive off limited resources is from October to June which, is 8 months and about 240 days. In order to survive the winter during the Dust Bowl I would eat my bull, but keep my cow alive in order to drink it’s milk and eat the wheat.  This will help me keep my resources around long enough until the rain comes again so the crops I planted grow.  By killing the bull helps me save my resources in food and water because according to table one the bull consumes the most calories per day.  They require the most amount of water and food so by killing it I am able to save more of my resources to survive.  Also the bull is good for getting protein and fat into my diet during the winter so I am able to stay fairly healthy during this time because I will be getting some of the required nutrients.  According to table one a lactating cow produces about 6 gallons of milk per day. That means that I would get 96 cups of milk to drink, which could last me 32 days if I drank cups of milk a day.  The milk my cow produces in one day will be able to last me a month so within two weeks I will be able to have enough milk that will last me until June. This means that I will have something to drink that will also give me my fat intake, carbohydrates intake, and protein intake for my dietary needs.  Also it allows me to give more water to the cow so it is able to survive for a longer period of time.  Though the cow requires 50 gallons of water a day I would have to give it less because if I gave it the recommended amount the water would only last me 10 days which is not good.  I figured out that I have 8 months until June to keep these resources around and if one is gone by day 10 then the others won’t last much longer and I won’t survive through the winter.  I calculated that I have 3,764.88 grams of wheat to live off of for about 240 days and that means I am able to eat about 15 grams of wheat a day and survive.  Now I would have to cut that by two-thirds because most of the wheat would have to go to the cow in order for it to survive so, I would be able to get 5 grams of wheat a day and still survive and the cow would be able to get 10 grams of wheat.  However, I would not eat wheat everyday because my cow does require more in order to be able to produce milk for me to drink.  The days I do not eat the wheat I would eat the meat of the bull that I killed and that has to be proportioned for each day since only 41% of its total weight is consumable, according to table 2. By doing all of this I will be able to survive the Dust Bowl with little trouble.