78 



MISC. PUBLICATION 194, U. S. DEPT. OF AGKICULTURE 



Table 11. — Period during which different crops may he pastured and acreage oj 



each for 100 ewes 



Approximate dates 



Crop 



Pasture no. 



Acreage 



required 



for 100 



ewes 



Apr. 1 to Apr. 29.. 

 Apr. 29 to May 27. 

 May 27 to June 24 

 June 24 to July 22. 

 July 22to Aug. 19. 

 Aug. 19 to Sept. 16 

 Sept. 16 to Oct. 14 

 Oct. 14 to Nov. 11. 



Winter wheat, rye, or barley 



Alfalfa 1 



Oats and peas.. 



Rape 



Soybeans 



Alfalfa 



Rape 



Winter wheat 



1 and 2. 



3 



4 



1 



2 



3 



4 



1 and 2. 



' Ordinarily it should be possible to get a crop of hay from the alfalfa in July. 



Tliis schedule provides a total of 40 acres to carry 100 ewes from 

 April 1 until the middle of November. In many sections, the use of early 

 spring pasture can be advanced at least a month. However, there wall be 

 times when the wheat is too backward or the ground too soft to turn the 

 sheep out on April 1 . Under such circumstances some permanent pas- 

 ture may be used or dry-lot feeding continued. Furthermore, in the sum- 

 mer and fall it may be too dry to obtain adequate pasturage from such 

 crops as rape and winter wheat. At such times stubble fields, aftermath, 

 and cornfields may be available. On good soils that will produce about 

 40 bushels of corn per acre, 40 acres of such pastures in good years 

 should furnish enough grass for 100 ewes and their lambs to weaning 

 time and some surplus forage wliich may be harvested for hay. 



According to the plan, one of the two 10-acre pastures in winter 

 wheat is plowed and seeded to rape and the other is seeded to soy- 

 beans. In the fall both are to be plowed and seeded to winter wheat 

 again. On field 4, oats and peas seeded in early spring are to be 

 followed by rape for fall grazing. In the case of each 4-week period 

 the pasture being used for that period should be divided by a tem- 

 porary fence so that slightly more than half the pasture may be used 

 the first 2 weeks and the remainder the last 2 weeks. 



ROTATIONS WITH PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY PASTURES 



An effective system of rotation grazing can be arranged in the regu- 

 lar crop fields of most stock farms, provided there is a sufficient 

 number of fields having sheep fence to permit changing them fre- 

 quently during the growing season and provided, the sheep are properly 

 dosed with copper sulphate solution. 



In such a plan, the earliest spring grazing is usually furnished by 

 fall-sowTi wheat or rye, even though the crop has been grazed pre- 

 viously during the winter (fig. 22). Following this, the flock may be 

 placed on permanent grass pasture on w^hich there w^ere no sheep 

 during the previous year. If such a pasture is not available, a legume 

 in a crop rotation, such as red clover, may be used. Ordinarily the 

 land used would be that on wdiich the sheep grazed wheat at the begin- 

 ning of the previous year. In such a case, in most sections the danger 

 of worm infestation would probably be much reduced. By the time 

 the third change is necessary some fields usually w411 have been 

 harvested for hay and the aftermath can be used for grazing. 



For ewes or lambs that are carried later in the year, subsequent 

 pasturage is furnished in the stubble fields of the grain crops, and 



