UNITED STATES DERA.RTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



& BULLETIN No. 397 



Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 ^^'^^U ^^- ^- TAYLOR, Chief 



Washington, D. C. V September 20, 1916 



THE GRAZING INDUSTRY OF THE BLUEGRASS 



REGION. 



By Lyman Carrier, Agronomist, Forage-Crop Investigations. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



The different grades oi bluegrass pastures 2 



Effect of winter grazing on the sod 3 



Kinds of live stock raised 5 



Wintering the steers 5 



Getting a sod S 



Value of a pasture when grazed with cattle . . 9 



Value of a pasture when grazed with sheep . . 11 



Maintaining the fertility of the soil 12 



The proper rate to graze 14 



Care of pastures 15 



The supply of stockers 17 



INTRODUCTION. 



Grazing bluegrass^ with horses, mules, cattle, sheep, or hogs is the 

 leading agricultural industry of southwestern Virginia, the adjoining 

 sections of West Virginia and Tennessee, the northwest-central por- 

 tion of West Virginia, and a large area of central and western Ken- 

 tucky. For the sake of convenience, as well as to emphasize the 

 importance of bluegrass in that area, this section of country is referred 

 to in this bulletin as the "bluegrass region," a term which is often 

 thus apphed. (Fig. 1.) 



While pastures consisting in larger or smaller part of bluegrass cover 

 about one-fourth of the improved farm land of -the northern part of 

 the Mississippi VaUey and eastward to the Atlantic coast, the farm 

 practice in utihzing these pastures over the greater part of that area 

 differs considerably from that of the sections above mentioned. Fin- 

 ishing beef cattle on grass, without grain, is not popular through most 

 of the corn belt. Buyers usually discriminate against grass-fed 

 stock; so while cattle may graze the pastures during the summer, they 

 are either fed grain while on grass or are finished during the winter on 

 grain. In the bluegrass region the cattle are finished on grass alone. 

 Some farmers in this region feed sufficient grain during the winter to 

 keep the 2 and 3 year old cattle gaining in flesh and graze them until 



1 Poa pratensis. 

 48131°— Bull. 397—16 1 



