Excerpt: ...of production is much less, but it is seldom less than five months. The growth is so rapid that cuttings for soiling food may usually be made at intervals of four to six weeks, according to season and climate; hence, the cuttings for soiling food will run all the way from two to eight or nine each season. It is so palatable that horses, mules, cattle, sheep and swine relish it highly. When wilted a little before being fed, the danger of producing Pg 167 bloat is eliminated. Its feeding value is nearly the same ...
Read More
Excerpt: ...of production is much less, but it is seldom less than five months. The growth is so rapid that cuttings for soiling food may usually be made at intervals of four to six weeks, according to season and climate; hence, the cuttings for soiling food will run all the way from two to eight or nine each season. It is so palatable that horses, mules, cattle, sheep and swine relish it highly. When wilted a little before being fed, the danger of producing Pg 167 bloat is eliminated. Its feeding value is nearly the same as that of the medium red clover, thus making it in itself what may be termed a balanced or perfect food for horses, mules, cattle and sheep until development is completed and subsequently when they are at rest; that is, when they are not producing, as in the form of labor or milk. The highest use, probably, from feeding alfalfa when green will arise from feeding it to milch cows. Its high protein content in combination with its succulence pre-eminently adapts it to such a use. Wherever alfalfa can be grown and will produce even two cuttings a year, it will serve a good purpose in producing milk. Every dairyman dependent more or less on soiling food will find it to his advantage to grow alfalfa where it may be grown in good form. When fed to milch cows, some meal added, carbonaceous in character, as corn or non-saccharine sorghum seed, may prove a paying investment, and it may also be advisable to alternate the green alfalfa, morning or evening, with such other green crops as oats and peas, millet, rape, corn or sorghum when in season, to provide variety. But even though alfalfa alone should be thus made to supplement the pastures, the outcome should be at least fairly satisfactory. When fed to horses that are working, some care must be exercised in feeding it, lest too lax a condition of the bowels should be induced, and a grain factor should be fed at the same time. It has frequently been given to sheep that were being fitted for show...
Read Less
