INTENSIVE GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT 



By R. C. Folejr, E. J. Montague, Assistant Professor of Animal Husbandry, 



and C. H. Parsons' 



Introduction 



Any profitable system of agriculture, if it is to be of a permanent character, 

 must provide for the maintenance of soil fertility. The feeding of livestock 

 and the return of the resulting manure to the land is one method whereby this 

 may be accomplished- Profitable animal husbandry should provide for the 

 home production of the greater part of the roughage fed and for the minimimi 

 use of expensive concentrates. Good pasture is the most economical method 

 of producing feed for cattle during the summer months; yet pasture is fre- 

 quently the most neglected crop on the farm. 



Experimental work in pasture fertilization has been carried on at the Mass- 

 achusetts Agricultural College for a number of years, but it was not until 

 1928 that the problem was attacked on a large scale. At that time an inten- 

 sive system of grassland management, originally developed in Germany during 

 the war, was inaugurated on the college farm. In 1916 while cut off from the 

 rest of the world by the blockade, Germany began the home production of 

 high protein feed for livestock through heavy fertilization of grassland with 

 nitrogenous fertilizers. The system was developed by Professor Warmbold at 

 the Hohenheim Experiment Station, using the following annual applications of 

 plant food per acre: 107 pounds of nitrogen, 36 pounds of phosphoric acid 

 and 80 pounds of potash. The phosphoric acid and potash and about half of 

 the nitrogen were put on in February, while the balance of the nitrogen was 

 applied in three summer top dressings of urea, a synthetic (air) nitrogen 

 carrier. As a result of this treatment the area required was reduced from 1.4 

 acres per cow in 1916 to 0.75 acres in 1917 and to 0.5 acres in 1918. These 

 results and the lower cost of synthetic nitrogen established the system in 

 Germany, and it has since been quite generally introduced into the Nether- 

 landis and the British Isles. 



The system is designed to provide a luxuriant growth of high protein grass, 

 thereby making it possible for the dairy farmer, at least during the summer 

 months, to produce on his own farm and in such a form that the cattle may 

 harvest it directly most of the feed necessary for his herd. It was hoped that 

 the application of this system to Massachusetts would effect a reduction in 

 the amount of concentrates fed during the summer and yield greater re- 

 turns per acre from the land used in maintaining the herd. 



The system is based on four distinct principles, namely: 



1. Division of area into plots. 



2. Use of concentrated fertilizers. 



3. Rotational grazing. 



4. Combination of grazing and hay land. 



1 This demonstration was conducted with the cooperation of the Synthetic Nitrogen 

 Products Corporation. Helpful suggestions were received from the Agronomy, Animal 

 Husbandry and Farm Management Departments of the College. 



2 Graduate students in Animal Husbandry. 



