Annual crops for hay and pasture

Abstract

Successful livestock and dairy farming depends upon good pastures and satisfactory yields of hay and other roughages. Many farms lack adequate pasturage for the livestock they are carrying. Furthermore, the failure or partial failure of the hay crop frequently presents another real problem. Hay and pasture may have been badly injured by winter-killing, drought, floods or other adverse conditions. Often, poor catches on newly seeded fields are not noticed until the following spring when it is too late to reseed to biennial or perennial species. Sometimes legumes and grasses are killed out in low-lying areas or hollows, thus forcing the farmer to fall back on an annual crop. Annual Forages Recommended When a shortage of hay or pasture is threatened it is necessary to (resort to the use of annual forages. Generally the same species may be used for hay and for pasture. The chief crops, successful as supplements, are, oats ; oats and sudan grass; oats and fall rye; oats and sweet clover; oats and peas; oats, peas and vetch; oats and Italian rye grass; sudan grass; millet; soybeans; soybeans and sudan grass; fall rye; rape; kale; sorghum; wheat; barley and corn. Rates, Method and Time of Seeding Different Crops Oats.-Seeded alone at the rate of two to three bushels per acre oats may be grazed in four to five weeks after seeding or from the time the crop is not more than one foot in height. Oats may be cut for hay when the grain is in the milk stage. Oats are palatable and nutritious and well relished by livestock. The only disadvantage, particularly in Eastern Canada, is that oats give a poor aftermath following the first cutting or grazing. Where leaf or stem rust is prevalent resistant varieties, recommended for the area, should be used. Where available Roxton oats are recommended for use in Eastern Canada. Oats and Sudan Grass.-Oats are usually seeded at two bushels and sudan grass at twenty pounds per acre. Such a mixture provides considerably more pasture than oats or sudan grass alone. The oats grow quickly and furnish pasture early. Sudan grass makes its best growth When the soil gets warm and usually after the oats have been grazed or mowed off once. This mixture should be seeded

A tribute to William George Dore, 1912-1996 [Obituary]

“…He was interested in anatomy, physiology, phytogeography, ethnobotany and ecology, but all these aspects of botany and their ramifications lead him back to systematics and identification. His interest in pasture studies and the difficulties in field identification of plants grazed by cows, lead to his participation in the production of one of the first publications specifically on the identification of grasses by vegetative characteristics (Nowosad, Newton Swales, and Dore 1936). The preface to the second edition (1938) begins with "The fact that the first edition of this modest bulletin, designed only to meet a local need, met with a profuse and world wide demand, is evidence of the rising interest in grassland research.…”