Grass silage
Under a system of alternate grazing, all the fields need not be used during May and June when growth is most plentiful. The fields not grazed may be allowed to make a growth of from 6 to 8 inches before the sward is cut for silage. Cutting can be done conveniently with an ordinary mowing machine fitted with a windrower or a buncher. The herbage may be collected by a hay loader. In order to preserve the silage most effectively, from 16 to 20 pounds of food grade 68 per cent liquid phosphoric acid of sufficiently low fluorine content should be mixed with each ton of herbage as it is put into the silo. As an alternative, from 60 to 80 pounds of molasses may be used in the same way. The silage produced may be fed during the summer months if it is needed or it may be used for winter feed.
Preliminary trials indicate that a good type of long-term mixture to use for the production of grass and legume silage and for supplementary summer grazing is the following:
| Pounds to | |
| the acre | |
| Orchard grass (Daclylishylomerata) | 10 |
| Timothy (Phleum pretense) | 5 |
| Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) | 5 |
| New York wild birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus var. ) | 2 |
| Yellow trefoil (Medicago lupulina) | 1 |
| Ladino white clover (Trifolium repens var.) | 2 |
| Total | 25 |
The strains used should be those suggested for the Cornell pasture mixture (page 32). Leafy pasture types of orchard grass are preferable to the commercial hay types. Suitable strains are Svalof Brage, Aberystwyth S143, S37 and S26, and New Zealand Akaroa. Of these, the Svalof Brage strain is the most winter-hardy.
FEEDING VALUE OF PASTURE HERBAGE
GOOD pasture herbage has a feeding value that is somewhat similar to milk. Because of selective grazing, by which animals eat short leafy herbage in preference to tall stemmy material, the herbage actually consumed by the stock is usually higher in protein content and in minerals than is the average of the herbage in the pasture. The herbage consumed from excellent pastures frequently contains in the dry matter as much as 30 per cent of protein, 1.5 per cent of phosphoric acid, and 1.5 per cent of lime.
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