DAIRY CATTLE 



455 



hay is not much relished, hut when 

 eaten readily gives better results than 

 any other coarse fodder. Silage made of 

 oats, peas and vetch was apparently su- 

 perior to corn silage. The best early 

 pasture for milch cows, in Nebraska, 

 was obtained by sowing oats and peas,. 

 and in Connecticut this combination 

 proved to be the best forage crop for 

 midsummer. In Michigan, oat-pea si- 

 lage is highly recommended for milch 

 cows. Oat hay alone was found to be 

 inferior to timothy and clover in an 

 experiment in New Hampshire. In 

 Maine, a silage containing peas, sun- 

 flowers and corn was found superior to 

 corn silage. This mixture, however, can- 

 not be used to replace all of the grain 

 ration, but about 20 pounds of the mix- 

 ture may be substituted for 3 pounds 

 of the grain. Pea silage is also highly 

 recommended in Minnesota and else- 

 where. 



Rape — Ordinarily rape produces a 

 good flow of mill?, but must be fed with 

 caution, since otherwise it may taint 

 the milk. It is to be considered a 

 promising plant for use as silage. Ac- 

 cording to Canadian experience, 55 

 pounds of rape per day will produce 

 slightly more milk than corn silage and 

 of a higher test. With this amount of 

 rape, however, the milk will show a 

 rape flavor, and cheese produced from it 

 is gassy. In Iowa, a falling off in the 

 milk yield was noted when cows were 

 taken from pasture and fed rape as a 

 soiling crop. Moreover, the butter was 

 of a poor quality. Rape silage was 

 greedily eaten by cows in an experiment 

 in Michigan, and no bad taint was im- 

 parted to the milk. 



Robertson's mixture silage — This 

 mixture is highly recommended in Can- 

 ada and has been tested in the United 

 States, especially in Maine and Vermont. 

 In one experiment it proved equal and 

 in another decidedly superior to com 

 silage. Robertson's mixture, as usually 

 made, contains corn, sunflower heads 

 and horse beans in the proportion of 1 

 acre corn, one-half acre horse beans and 

 one-fourth acre sunflowers. When fed 

 together with corn silage it has been 

 found equal to a mixture of beets and 

 carrots. The mixture may also be sub- 

 stituted for a part of the grain ration. 



Rye — As a pasture, soiling or silage 

 crop, rye is much used in dairying. Ac- 

 cording to Canadian experience it is in- 



ferior to alfalfa in yield per acre and in 

 milk production and palatability. Hills 

 found that rye silage was drier, less 

 greedily eaten and made 10 per cent less 

 milk and butter than corn silage. In 

 Alabama, however, rye proved about 

 equal to silage. Rye is recommended as 

 a pasture crop throughout the country, 

 and in many localities is the earliest 

 available crop which may be used for 

 soiling purposes. 



Serradella — I n Massachusetts, it was 

 found that cows would eat from 90 

 to 97 pounds of green serradella a day. 

 This material greatly increases the milk 

 flow when substituted for three-fourths 

 of the ordinary hay ration. 



Sorghum — Curtiss places sorghum at 

 the head of the list as a soiling crop 

 for midsummer and early autumn. It 

 is hardy, a vigorous grower, yields abun- 

 dantly and adapts itself to localities of 

 considerable rainfall and also of drouth. 

 Any of the crop which is not needed 

 for summer feeding may be cured for 

 winter use. For milk production it may 

 be sown from early spring until the 

 middle of July. In Nebraska, sorghum 

 produced the greatest amount of pasture 

 among various crops which were tested. 

 In Michigan, sorghum in the form of 

 fodder or silage was readily eaten by cows, 

 but proved inferior to corn. Sorghum 

 silage was found to be an economical 

 feed for dairy cows in Tennessee and far 

 superior to cottonseed hulls in a test 

 made in Georgia. 



Soy bean — The soy bean is an excel- 

 lent forage crop for midsummer 

 throughout the central states. It does 

 not yield quite as heavily as sorghum, 

 but is a vigorous grower and resists 

 drouth even better than sorghum. It 

 may be fed green during the summer 

 months or the seeds may be allowed 

 to ripen. Soy beans ensiled with corn 

 were tested by Hills, but did not ma- 

 terially improve the quality of the silage 

 or increase the milk flow over that ob- 

 tained by straight corn silage. A si- 

 lage containing soy beans and cowpeas 

 made less milk but of a higher fat per- 

 centage. The mixed silage was less read- 

 ily eaten and seemed more expensive to 

 produce. The production of butter fat 

 was considerably increased in Nebraska, 

 by the use of a soy bean pasture, and in 

 Massachusetts, soy beans have been 

 found superior to peas and oats as a 

 soiling crop; they were also better than 



