May, 1933] Efficiency Studies in Dairy Farming 27 



is plowed each year and stocked down, and the yields and quality 

 of hay are better. 



Seeding down at least one-fifth of the tillage land each year will 

 undoubtedly result in a larger tonnage of higher quality hay. On 

 nearly eveiy fann, this shorter rotation can be adopted with only a 

 small out-of-pocket expense for additional seed. The additional plow- 

 ing* and fitting of land in most instances can be done by the available 

 labor and teams. Over a period of years the investment in additional 

 seed would be returned many fold in higher yields of better quality hay.* 



Seeding down a larger acreage in a shorter rotation, as strongly rec- 

 ommended, can be done more easily and practically and the expected 

 results will be more certain if the layout of the farm fields is given 

 considerable thought. 



In making maps of the tillage land it was found on one farm with 

 40 acres of tillage that 18 individual pieces had been plowed and 

 stocked down. Natural barriers made some small fields mandatory; 

 yet fields, four to seven acres in size were possible. By combining 

 these with the smaller areas a definite four-year rotation could be con- 

 veniently carried on. Evidence indicates that the various field oper- 

 ations require considerably more time per acre on small fields. 



A real saving in labor is possible if certain fields are grouped and 

 are considered as one even though they are separated by natural bar- 

 riers. This eliminates much travel to and from the buildings with 

 different machinery. 



In laying out fields with the intent of growing roughage more sj^s- 

 tematically in a rotation, several problems should be considered: the 

 possible use of corn silage, clover and alfalfa mixtures, annual legumes 

 and perhaps the pasturing of tillage fields. 



Mr. Abell has shown that silage increases the carrying capacity of 

 the fanu and that the higher the jiroportion of tillage land in com 

 silage, the greater the carrying capacity per acre. The data from the 

 38 fanns in this study tend to support Mr. Abell's conclusions. It 

 would seem desirable, where silo and machinery are available, to have 

 from one-fifth to one-sixth of tillage land in silage. If sod land is 

 broken up each year and planted to corn for silage and then is 

 stocked clown after corn, a rotation can be maintained and high 

 quality hay produced. 



Annual legumes can be used to advantage on some of the farms. 

 Where new seedings are sown with oats or barley as a nurse crop, for 

 example, the addition of peas or vetch to oats will raise the quality 

 of the resulting hay and not materially interfere with the new seeding. 

 Or if ten acres are available for corn silage each year in a rotation 

 and if seven acres will fill the silo, Hungarian millet and soybeans 

 could be put in the remaining three acres — preferably on the three 

 acres least suited to corn. 



Where no corn is grown, as much as one-fith of the tillage land 

 could be seeded to Hungarian millet and soybeans and then seeded to 

 clover and alfalfa mixture after the annual hay crop has been harvested. 



*New Hampshire Experiment Station Bulletin 273 by M. F. Abell. 



