FARM ORGANIZATION IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA. 29 



States Department of Agriculture. A concrete example of the 

 operation of the system given in the circular may profitably be referred 

 to again at this point. 



A dairy farm of 160 acres all in alfalfa is divided into fields of 20 

 acres each. Four of these fields are pastured with milch cows during 

 the summer months and the other four are cut for hay. In pasturing, 

 the animals are kept off the fields until the alfalfa is nearly or quite 

 mature enough to cut for hay, and then turned into the fields in suffi- 

 cient numbers to harvest the crop quickly. From 80 to 90 cows are 

 pastured on a field of 20 acres until the best of the crop has been 

 eaten, and then are turned into another 20-acre field. By varying 

 the time at which cattle are first turned on in the spring, the fields areso 

 managed that crops mature in different fields at different times, thus 

 allowing the cattle to be rotated from one field to another through- 

 out the season. When the best of the crop has been taken by milch 

 cows, they are followed for a few days by dry cows and young dairy 

 stock to clean up such feed as may have been left. Then the field is 

 irrigated and all stock kept off until another crop is ready to be har- 

 vested. By discontinuing winter pasturing of hay fields at different 

 dates they are also managed so that crops mature in different fields 

 at different times, and when the hay is harvested it is put up with a 

 hay loader. Dry cows and young stock are allowed to follow the hay 

 loader, thus cleaning up any waste hay. The fields are then watered, 

 and all stock kept off till another crop is ready for harvesting. Dry 

 cows and young stock are fed hay when there is not sufficient pasture 

 for them. At the close of the haying season the fields are seeded 1 to 

 barley, which affords green forage for winter pasture, the fields being 

 rotated as in the summer. Milch cows are allowed free access to hay, 

 and consume considerable quantities of it even when on the best of 

 pasture. 



The fields are never pastured when the ground is wet, and a good 

 stand of alfalfa is preserved, the particular farm under consideration 

 having good fields that have not been reseeded during a period of 12 

 years. Keeping hay before milch cows when on pasture reduces losses 

 from bloat, as does pasturing of only the mature crop. One dairy- 

 man with over 100 cows reported that by rotation pasturing and the 

 feeding of hay at all times during the year he had completely elimi- 

 nated losses from bloat, not having lost a single animal in the last 13 

 years. 



By rotation pasturing the plants are allowed to come to complete 

 maturity, which greatly increases the total yield. Experiments have 

 shown that when alfalfa plants are allowed to come to complete ma- 



1 The barley is seeded in the alfalfa without plowing or disturbing the alfalfa plants in any way. In fact, 

 the harrowing or drilling necessary to cover the barley seed answers for a cultivation of the alfalfa field, 

 loosening up ground that may have become somewhat packed from tramping, thus proving a benefit 

 to the alfalfa. 



