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497 Hay, Fodder, and Silage Crops HAY, FODDER, AND SILAGE CROPS 497 that is thought to be pure. Poisoning summer and fall. Second-year sweet- can usually be avoided by feeding hay clover will furnish an abundance of to livestock before turning them on the pasturage in midsummer. There is a pasture. Another precaution is to turn danger of bloat, but it is not serious only a few head of stock on the pasture and can be avoided in most cases by until it is determined that there is no feeding enough dry feed before turn- danger from poisoning. ing the stock on sweetclover so that Sweetclover also makes an excellent they will not immediately gorge them- temporary pasture. Sufficient growth selves. Another way to avoid bloat is is usually made during the first season to have dry roughage available to to provide some pasture during late stock while they are being pastured. HAY, FODDER, AND SILAGE CROPS L. G. NEWELL ON THE BASIS of acreage, wild hay Studies of the composition and nutri- is the outstanding hay crop of the re- tive value of native vegetation at Man- gion. More than 9 million acres of it dan, N. Dak., showed that western were harvested in 1946. Nebraska, needlegrass comprises 50 to 75 percent South Dakota, and North Dakota lead of the total weight of the grasses. Fifty the United States in the production of or more different kinds of plants were wild hay. It is the principal return found. Since the droughts of 1934 and from virgin, unbroken lands other than 1936, the needlegrass has largely been the grazing. replaced by western wheatgrass. Wild hays, made up chiefly of the Wheatgrass hay is produced on the tall and mid-tall grasses of the prairie fine-textured soils largely to the north regions, are the prairie hays of com- and west of the Nebraska sand hills. merce, although their most important It is especially important along river use is within the region. On the market bottoms in northeastern Montana, they are graded as Upland Prairie or This hay is frequently harvested from Midland Prairie hays according to the nearly pure stands of western wheat- kinds and qualities of the grasses they grass. Feeding tests have shown it to be contain. equal or superior to alfalfa hay for Prairie hays are composed of a large wintering cattle. number of grasses and grasslike plants, In the Nebraska sand hills, which with smaller admixtures of native and are unique in ranching and haying op- introduced species belonging to many erations, a good balance is achieved different families. In any particular between range and hay land. Ranges of case, the large percentage of the grass the sand hills or adjacent hard lands in the hay will be of a few species. provide grazing. Meadows of the sub- The principal grasses found in Up- irrigated valleys produce abundant land Prairie hays are the bluestems, hay crops in which the bluestems pre- needlegrasses, and whcatgrasses, with dominate. These hay lands are a post- such grasses as junegrass, the grama climax development resulting from the grasses, the dropseeds, Indiangrass, westw^ard extension of the tall grasses and switchgrass contributing smaller along the valleys. Studies of these hay amounts in different hays. The princi- meadows have shown that the rela- pal species of Midland Prairie hays are tive amounts of the many kinds of those adapted to growing in wet areas; grasses are closely associated with dis- among them are sloughgrass or cord- tances to the water table. The quality grass, blue joint, and switchgrass. and yield of hay have been greatly im- 757:150°—48 HB 498 YEARBOOK OF AGRICULTURE 1948 proved by the introduction of clovers grasses provide some of the best adapt- into some of these subirrigated mead- ed plant materials for this purpose, ows. Haymaking, the principal har- but until 1934 seed of these grasses vesting operation in the sand-hill was not available. Since then much ranching area, continues from June progress has been made in domesticat- until September. Some of the early-cut ing them, seed has been machine har- hay of best quality is baled and shipped vested in large quantities from native out of the region to terminal markets. stands and nurseries, and methods A large tonnage of stacked hay is re- of establishment have been developed. quired for overwintering operations It is now possible to obtain seed and within the area. establish stands of such important Haymaking and hay-feeding meth- grasses as western wheatgrass, feather ods have become largely mechanized bunchgrass, wild-rye, big bluestem, with either improvised or modern switchgrass, sand lovegrass, side-oats machinery within the past 15 years. grama, blue grama, and buíTalograss. An experiment to measure the ef- A continuing problem, however, is to fects of time of cutting on the yields increase seed supplies of the adapted and quality of typical bluestem hay superior strains in order that they may was started recently in southern Ne- become generally available for con- braska on a section of unbroken prairie servation plantings and for hay and given to the University of Nebraska for pasture production. experimental purposes. The effects of In general, cool-season grasses— different clipping treatments on the which grow early in the spring and ma- meadow are to be measured over a ture seed in early summer—have been period of years and the results inter- shown to have a much higher content preted each year in terms of the feeding of crude protein than those of the value of the hay. The first experiments warm-season group, which reach their showed that early-cutting and after- greatest growth in the hot months. As math harvests gave the best hay. such, they are important species for High quality is important in hay- consideration as hay. The cool-season making. Studies of the diíTcrent kinds group, including native western wheat- of prairie hays indicate that the pro- grass, wild-ryes, feather bunchgrass, tein content drops as the grasses ma- and the introduced crested wheatgrass, ture. There also seems to be a close intermediate wheatgrass, and brome- association between protein and caro- grass, offers the best possibilities for tene content of hays. Although the hay crops in the region. These tall early-cut hays usually contain enough grasses are suited to hay-harvesting protein to exceed minimum feed re- methods, but require considerable quirements, the later cut hays fre- amounts of moisture for maximum quently are deficient. Feeding of pro- yields. However, they combine vary- tein supplemients has become common ing degrees of ability to withstand in wintering cattle on native hay or on drought with the ability to produce the range, with the result that a maxi- good yields when moisture conditions mum return is had from the hays fed. are favorable. They are important for use in supplementing the warm-season Cultivated Perennials group, which predominate in native hays and on the range. Seed of adapted strains are needed On the other hand, adapted strains when croplands are put back into per- of the warm-season grasses such as big ennial grasses. Most of the commonly bluestem, switchgrass, sand lovegrass, cultivated forage grasses have never and the grama grasses are important been successfully established under the for reseeding on sandy soils and in the variable and severe climate of the southw^estern part where the cool-sea- Northern Great Plains. The native son species are less well adapted. HAY, FODDER, AND SILAGE CROPS 499 Crested wheatgrass is the most im- but the use of adapted strains and the portant introduced species in the re- recent favorable seasons have extended gion. Stands of this grass are useful its use farther westward. It is espe- supplements to the range for early cially recommended on fertile soils spring pasture; they make it possible and under irrigation in mixtures with to defer grazing of the warm-season alfalfa. range grasses until a proper growth has been made. If it is not used early Legume Hays in the season as pasturage^ crested wheatgrass will provide a hay or a Alfalfa, the most important legume seed crop. For the best hay it should be hay in the Northern Great Plains, is es- cut before a maximum of heading has pecially valuable in the finishing ration taken place in order to insure a high with grains for cattle and sheep. It is protein content. When properly han- also grown for shipment to dairy cen- dled, the feeding value of crested ters and for use as a component of wheatgrass is high, ranking with other commercial feeds. cool-season grasses and alfalfa. An- The alfalfa plant has a deep root other introduced wheatgrass that sho^vs system, and, onc(.^ established, can draw promise through the southern half of heavily on subsoil moisture. It can the region is intermediate wheatgrass. therefore survive moderately dry The demand for grasses to be used weather for rather long periods under for soil conservation purposes has proper management. Alfalfa is grown greatly increased the acreage of brome- to best advantage on fertile soils with grass along the eastern edge of the naturally favorable moisture condi- region. The Dakotas have long been tions or under irrigation, where it recognized as one of the principal pro- reaches its greatest production and is ducing areas of bromegrass seed in the valued as an important crop in the United States, Nebraska grew more rotation. With sufficient moisture, than 50 percent of the bromegrass seed three good cuttings are usually ob- in the United States in 1944 and 1945. tained a year in the southern part and It is estimated that plantings in Ne- two cuttings in the northern part.
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