USE OF ANNUAL PLANTS IN CALIFORNIA FOOTHILLS 17 



Thus, although green forage is adequate only about 4 months, foothill 

 ranges can be efficiently grazed during the entire year, provided there is 

 sufficient dry roughage on the range and supplements are fed during the 

 time when the green forage is deficient in quantity or quality. 



Ranchers follow several practices to supplement range forage. Dry- 

 land Sudangrass is used in connection with some foothill ranges during 

 the summer. As pointed out by Jones and Love (8), this practice is 

 centered in the Sacramento Valley and Coast Ranges and is limited on 

 most ranches by the small acreage suitable for dry-land farming. Another 

 practice is to mow green range vegetation on part of the ranch and to 

 feed the hay out of the windrow or shock during the summer. This 

 method is usually limited to areas that support a good cover of wild oat. 

 Alfalfa hay, or home-grown grain or wild-oat hay, is used as a supplement, 

 occasionally in the summer but more commonly in the fall and winter. 

 Probably the most widespread practice is to feed protein concentrates, 

 particularly cottonseed cake, during the fall and winter — and on some 

 ranches during the summer, too. The cooperative animal husbandry 

 studies have shown that supplementing the dry range forage is an efficient 

 range husbandry practice. 



Lengthening the Period of Adequate Forage 



A major objective in foothill range management is to devise practices 

 that will provide adequate forage for livestock over the longest possible 

 period. Cultural treatments of the land, such as range reseeding or 

 fertilization, have been used successfully on a trial basis to accomplish 

 this objective. Adapted perennial species established by seeding will 

 produce adequate green forage earlier than annuals and will provide 

 some green leafage during the summer. Also, an increase in production 

 of annual legumes will lengthen the period when foothill range forage is 

 adequate. For example, studies now under way at the experimental 

 range have shown that sulfur-bearing fertilizers will increase native 

 annual legumes on these granitic soils. As a result, yields of dry forage 

 are increased and its nutritive value during the summer is greatly im- 

 proved, and forage growth during the following winter is stimulated 

 because of the nitrogen added to the soil by the legumes. Cultural treat- 

 ments to increase soil fertility and establish superior species, combined 

 with management to make best use of the improved range will be more 

 widely used to lengthen the period of adequate forage on foothill ranges. 



Results of this study, however, show that there are other means of 

 providing green forage at times when it is critically needed. This can 

 be accomplished on some ranches by using the different kinds of range 

 land at the best time of year. For example, in the early part of the plant- 

 growing season, north slopes are better suited for grazing than south 

 slopes. This is especially true of the steeper north slopes where the soil 

 surface dries slowly after the infrequent rains at that time of year. 

 Hence, the tallest green forage is found on north slopes. Similarly, new 

 green forage is often more abundant in the shade of some tree and shrub 

 canopies than in the open. These effects of shading are particularly 

 important in years when fall-winter rainfall is below average. 



By late winter soil moisture is ordinarily not a limiting factor, and the 

 situation is reversed. At this time plant growth is most advanced on 

 warm south slopes; green forage is usually adequate, without supple- 



