42 



BULLETIN 981, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The remarkably close similarity in the composition of Sudan grass, 

 Johnson grass, timothy, and millet hay is shown by Table IX. The 

 legume hays, of course, show a high percentage of protein, and this 

 must be taken into consideration in feeding. Corn fodder and 

 sorghum fodder are very similar in composition, and each is of 

 lower feeding value than any of the hays because there is more waste 

 in feeding them. 



Only a few determinations of the digestibility of Sudan grass hay 

 have been made, but these show that its rank in digestibility, as in 

 composition, is practically equal to that of millet and timothy hays. 

 One of the tests was carried out at the Maryland Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station in 1915 with a young bull, another at the Iowa Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station in December, 1916, with two Guernsey 

 heifers, and the third with two sheep at the Texas Agricultural 

 Experiment Station. (Table X.) 



Table X. — Coefficients of digestibility of Sudan grass, millet, and timothy hays. 



Constituents. 



Digestion coefficients. 



Sudan grass. 



BS. 



Texas. 3 



Millet. * 



Timo- 

 thy." 



Per cent. 



Dry matter ! 64. 9 



Protein 47. 4 



Crude fiber 67. 8 



Nitrogen-free extract 70. 6 



Ether extract j 58. 4 



Per cent. 

 60.6 

 35.4 

 63.3 

 67.1 

 41.2 



Per cent. 



61.3 

 47.2 

 59.4 

 53.2 



Per cent. 

 65 

 60 

 68 

 67 

 64 



Per cent. 

 59 

 57 

 57 

 63 

 4S 



1 Data from Gaessler (9, p. 73). 



2 Data from Schmitz (20, p. 62;. 



3 Data from Fraps ( 7, p. 10) ; average of digestion experiments 60 and 62. 



4 Data from Henry and Morrison (10, p. 649); Hungarian millet and timothy cut when in bloom. 



The digestion experiments at the Texas station showed that sheep, 

 as compared with cattle, will digest a much larger percentage of the 

 protein but considerably less of the carbohydrates of Sudan grass. 

 A larger number of tests are necessary to determine accurately the 

 digestibility of Sudan grass. 



A peculiar feature of the effect of climate on the composition of 

 Sudan grass is shown in Table XL The grass when grown in regions of 

 light rainfall, such as the Great Plains, has a higher percentage of 

 ash and protein than when grown in the more humid regions farther 

 east. 



The differences apparent in the averages shown in Table XI very 

 fairly represent the actual differences in the composition of the grass, 

 it is believed/ when grown in different sections of the United States; 

 that produced in the semiarid regions has a higher percentage of all 

 the really essential food elements except fat and must therefore be 

 a better feed. 



