GREEN FORAGE AND HAY CROPS 109 



of the nitrogen-free extract, viz., the sugar and starch, which are 

 soluble, or readily rendered soluble in the process of digestion. 



Grain hay is commonly made and fed to farm animals in 

 western United States, and occasionally in other regions of the 

 country as well, when conditions render it necessary or desirable 

 to use it for this purpose. Barley, oats, wheat, and rye are used 

 for hay-making and for pasturage or soiling. Oats make the best 

 hay, while rye and barley are especially adapted for soiling or 

 pasturage. The grain crops are, in general, cut for hay when the 

 kernels are in the early milk stage; cut at this stage, they make a 

 very nutritious and palatable hay. Oats may be cut a little later 

 than this for hay, and barley preferably somewhat earlier, while 

 the beards are still soft, so that they will not give trouble in feeding 

 the hay. Wheat and barley hay are the common grain hays used 

 on the Pacific coast, while oat hay is more generally fed in the 

 southern States. Grain hay will yield an average of two to three 

 tons of hay per acre on good land. Cut for either soiling purposes 

 or for hay, the cereal crops yield forage of excellent quality and 

 palatability and furnish large amounts of valuable feed components. 

 At the stage given, early milk, the plants are relatively richer in 

 protein than during the ripening period, and the nutritive ratio 

 is, therefore, then considerably narrower than later on ; hence more 

 starchy, and, as a rule, cheaper concentrates may be fed with hay 

 cut at this time than at a later stage of growth. 3 



Sorghum is a common soiling crop in the southern and central 

 western States, and is also made into hay or silage. It resists 

 drought well, and has the further advantage of retaining its green 

 leaves late in the season. When intended for hay, it is generally 

 sown thickly, using about three bushels of seed to the acre, so as to 

 prevent a coarse growth. It is cut for hay at the late milk stage, 

 and, for soiling, any time after blossoming till approaching ma- 

 turity. When intended for silage, it should be left until mature 

 before it is cut (p. 157). On good soils sorghum will yield two to 

 four good crops of hay, often aggregating eight to ten tons during 

 the season. Matured sorghum may be cut and left shocked in the 

 field and fed in the same way as cornstalks, or may be run through 

 a shredder. It may be considered to possess a feeding value nearly 

 similar to that of fodder corn, ton for ton, although it contains 

 considerably less protein and somewhat more fiber than green corn 

 (nutritive ratio of Indian corn, 1 : 12.8; of sorghum, 1: 20.5). 



8 In Kentucky Bulletin 175 attention is called to the fact that young 

 green rye, wheat, and oats contain more protein than green legumes. 



