WILL MORE FORAGE PAY? 53 



called pasture and from old fields. As a specific example of the use 

 of lime, fertilizer, and seeds, farmer J seeded 8 acres, using per acre. 

 2 pounds Ladino clover, 10 pounds of orchard grass and 1 pound of 

 redtop. 400 pounds of 65-percent superphosphate. 6(H) pounds of 4- 

 12-4, and 2 tons of lime. Cash costs for these materials would be 

 about $33 an acre at the medium-price level and $35 at the high-price 

 level. For maintenance, 1,000 pounds of 0-12-12 per acre a year would 

 be required. This would cost about $15 per acre at the medium-price 

 level and $16 at the high-price level. For the farm as a whole, lime, 

 fertilizer, and seeds cost an average of $4.20 per acre of open land per 

 year from 1941-47 : in 1947 these costs were $7.35 per acre. 



Farm J is not so far advanced in the development of a forage pro- 

 gram as is farm I, but both are showing up well on the income side. 

 With the former plan the net cash income on farm J was $1,672 in 

 1941. With medium prices this would have been only $360 and with 

 high prices, $895. With the present plan, however, the actual average 

 net cash income was $5,821 in 1945-47. At the medium-price level, 

 the present plan would bring in a net cash income of about $2,600 and 

 $3,900 at the high-price level. 



In Georgia, a farmer- writer (5) describes what he calls "weather- 

 proof farming" — a 365-day pasture grazing, using four crops. With 

 this system livestock graze Kentucky 31 fescue from November 1 to 

 April 1. From the fescue they go to Ladino clover for about 5 weeks 

 and then on to sericea lespedeza when it is about 6 inches tall in early 

 May. Sericea is pastured until the middle of September. The fourth 

 crop is kudzu, which is grazed until the cycle is started again with 

 fescue. Thus, three legumes and a grass provide year-round grazing. 



Production Practices in Relation to Forage Production 



Fertilization, and some other practices, have so much to do with the 

 economics of hay, pasture, and other forage utilization that it seems 

 appropriate to give it some space in this publication. Fertilizers af- 

 fect the quantity, quality, mineral, vitamin, and protein content, palat- 

 ability, etc., of hay and pasture, which in turn, affect utilization. 



At the Black Belt substation of Alabama, an annual application of 

 400 pounds of phosphate and 50 pounds of muriate of potash per acre 

 to black medic, white clover, and Dallis grass pastures has about 

 doubled the yield of beef over unfertilized pastures. Each dollar 

 spent for fertilizers has produced an increase of 42 pounds of beef (1 ) . 

 The economic limit of fertilizer application has not been determined, 

 however. 



The Virginia station ran tests on the utilization of bluegrass pasture 

 from fertilized and unfertilized plots. They found no difference in 

 milk production per cow and no significant difference in nutritive 

 value of fertilized and unfertilized pasture. However, the increased 

 yield of the fertilized pasture justified the use of fertilizers (6'). 



In a series of tests at different locations in Alabama, yield and min- 

 eral content of pasture plants were greatly increased by applications 

 of lime and fertilizer. Significantly, regardless of fertilization rates, 

 the quality of plants on Norfolk sandy loam at the Gulf coast substa- 

 tion did not exceed that of plants from unfertilized plots on Bell and 

 Houston clays at the Black Belt substation. Likewise, the quality of 

 fertilized plants on Bell and Houston clays at the Black Belt substa- 



