540 THE SMALL GRAINS 



harvesting begins. This trimming is a cutting of 2 or 

 3 swaths around the field, while the straw is still green. 

 Many wheat raisers secure their entire hay supply in this 

 way. When bearded barley is grown for the grain, a strip 

 of wheat is often sown on the outside of the field to be 

 cut for hay. Wheat straw is largely used as a winter 

 ration for cattle, and often they have no other feed. Rye 

 is an important hay crop in the West, and is particularly 

 adapted for sandy land. Hooded barley is, however, 

 the most generally preferred cereal crop for hay (Grif- 

 fiths, 1903). 



581. Time of cutting. In practice, cereals are cut 

 for hay, in this country, when the grain is nearing the 

 " dough " stage. In Australia, where there is propor- 

 tionally more wheat used for hay than in any other 

 country, it is cut, at earliest, sometime after flowering or 

 when the grain is near the end of the milk stage or even in 

 the early " soft dough " stage. The usual commercial 

 standards for quality in wheaten hay in that country are 

 (1) a bright green color and (2) shriveled grain. The 

 highest quality will be secured when the kernels are full size, 

 but still in the milk stage. At this stage the spikes, culms, 

 and leaves will all be about equally nutritious. Investiga- 

 tions of this subject have been made by Perkins, Phillips, 

 Spafford, and May (1912) at the Roseworthy Agricultural 

 College, in South Australia. They determined that the 

 heaviest yields of wheaten hay are secured if cut when the 

 grain has fully reached the dough stage. However, in 

 quality, it will be more or less indigestible and will not be 

 equal as a feed, weight for weight, to hay cut at earlier 

 stages, and will be dry and bleached and carry a large 

 proportion of grain. 



582. Grading of cereal hay. Certain hay associations 



