196 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



maintain flesh better on alfalfa hay than on timothy hay. 

 Like clover, unless due care is taken in curing it, the hay is 

 much liable to be dusty; this lowers its value much as a 

 food for horses which soon become very fond of it and may 

 eat it to excess. 



Cowpea hay, not required in the North because of 

 the large number of other hay plants that may be grown, 

 is very commonly made in nearly all parts of the South. 

 No other plant in the South of equal value for hay is grown 

 over so wide an area. In many of its varieties it may be 

 grown for hay after the removal of a crop grown previ- 

 ously the same season. It furnishes hay of high quality 

 viewed from the standpoints of palatability and nutrition. 

 When well cured, live stock relish it quite as much as, or 

 even more than alfalfa, and in nutrients it is very similar. 

 The yields average about two tons an acre and run all the 

 way from one-half ton to five tons. It has been claimed 

 that two tons of cowpea hay an acre will furnish in total 

 digestible nutrients more than a similar area yielding 40 

 bushels of oats or 30 bushels of corn. But the curing of 

 cowpea hay is somewhat difficult, and in some varieties it 

 is not easily handled because of the running character of 

 the vines. 



By cattle, cowpea hay is not only relished, but for 

 growing cattle, no fodder in the South is superior to it. In 

 fattening cattle it feeds well along with corn stover or corn 

 fodder, but its highest use in the South as food for stock, 

 is found in producing milk. For this purpose it has proved 

 fully equal to alfalfa and somewhat superior to clover hay 

 and has been claimed to be even superior to corn silage. 

 The value of the hay for such feeding is much influenced 

 by the stage of maturity at which the crop is cut. Hay with 

 grain well advanced toward maturity is more valuable for 

 fattening cattle than hay cut during the period even of 

 medium bloom and it is much more easily cured, but it may 

 lose something in palatability. For the silo, they should 

 be reasonably well advanced before being harvested. 



