454 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



The question of how large a plot should be sown for a certain 

 number of cows is oftentimes asked. However, this is a question 

 that should make excellent hay. In 1912 for the forty-five cows 

 on nineteen and one-half acres of pasture, we had 1.71 acres in first 

 plot and .8838 acres in second. 



Fodder Cane: This is an excellent and widely grown forage 

 plant. In our work we have found it to yield very heavily and to 

 be very palatable and nutritious. Cattle eat it readily and waste 

 but little of it if fed in a manger, except when the cane is advanced 

 in maturity when the animals will leave some of the larger stalks if 

 heavily fed. If sown early in May the cane will be ready to start 

 cutting about July 10. It should be sown in limited areas so that 

 part of it will not become mature before it is fed. Upon rich 

 ground it is best to drill the seed in with a grain drill using all 

 the drills as a dense growth results in finer stalks with less fibre. 

 Sowing in this way requires about seventy pounds of seed per 

 acre. In 1912 the yield of green cane was 23.28 tons per acre. 



Fodder Cane and Cow Peas: This combination has proved to 

 be one of the best we have tried. As a feed it has given better re- 

 sults than either cane or cow peas alone. This is due no doubt to 

 the fact that the combined crop is more palatable than cow peas 

 alone and more nearly balanced in nutrients than cane alone due 

 to the protein in the cow peas. This crop can not be safely put in 

 until the ground has become warm. We drill it in soon after corn 

 planting. Our experience would indicate that from the time the 

 ground is warm enough for the cow peas until the first frost comes 

 in the fall that no better crop can be grown for soiling purposes. 

 It is best to drill the cow peas and cane separately; the rate of 

 seeding used has been one bushel of cow peas (Whip-poor-will or 

 New Era varieties) and thirty pounds of cane seed per acre. The 

 yield of green feed per acre in 1911 was about ten tons while in 

 1912 it ranged from 7.1 tons upon rather poor soil to 14.62 tons 

 upon good soil. 



Millet: This is not as good a crop for soiling purposes as the 

 ones just mentioned, but as it is not materially injured by a light 

 frost it may be used later in the fall than the cane and cow peas. 

 The plot of the ground used for the first sowing of oats and Canada 

 field peas may be plowed after the removal of the crop early in 

 July and sowed to millet. By sowing the millet about July 8, in 

 1911, a fairly good yield of millet was secured and due to the de- 

 layed heavy frost, it was used until October 26. In 1912, however, 

 the heavy killing frost came so early that practically none of the 

 millet could be used for soiling, but was cut for hay. Millet has 

 been sown at the rate of three pecks per acre and has yielded from 

 two to three and one-half tons per acre. 



Alfalfa: Green alfalfa may be utilized for soiling three times 

 each season and it is needless to say that it is one of the best crops. 

 It is first ready early in June just before the oats and Canada field 

 peas and>then again just before the cane and cow peas are ready 



