Some grazers, especially in the mountain States, have adopted
the plan of sowing other pastures, as wheat or barley, beside the
alfalfa pastures, and these are made accessible at will to the animals
that are being grazed. The plan has some commendable features, but
grazing animals thus does not reduce the danger as much as when they are
grazed on pastures in which other grasses grow up amid alfalfa. In some
of the Western States pure alfalfa meadows are grazed through successive
seasons with but little loss, but in such instances the grazing began in
the spring and was continuous. Judicious care should be exercised in
grazing alfalfa lest the stand of the plants shall be injured. The
liability to injury in the plants from injudicious grazing increases
with the lack of adaptation in the soil and climate for abundant and
prolonged growth in the alfalfa.
In a large majority of instances, as previously intimated, it is not
wise to graze down alfalfa at all closely the season of sowing, and in
some instances it should not then be grazed to any extent, lest the
plants be unduly weakened for entering the winter. In cold areas the
hazard is much greater from such grazing than in those that are mild,
and likewise, it is greater when the growth is only moderately vigorous
than in areas where alfalfa grows with the vigor of a weed, as in
Western mountain valleys. In areas where the winters are cold, and
especially where the snowfall is light and the winds have a wide sweep,
the animals which graze upon alfalfa should be removed in time to allow
the plants to grow up to the height of several inches before the advent
of winter. The growth thus secured will catch and hold the snow, and the
protection thus furnished is greatly helpful to the preservation and
vigor of the plants. Experience has shown that in Northern areas
pasturing alfalfa in winter, especially when the ground is bare and
frozen, brings imminent hazard to the plants. On the other hand, grazing
in winter in the mountain valleys, when as far north as Central
Montana, may be practiced with little or no hazard to the stand of
plants when these have become well established. In such areas alfalfa
may be grazed practically as may be desired, providing this grazing is
not too close.
Cattle injure alfalfa less than other animals when they graze upon it,
as they do not crop it too closely; swine injure it more, if the grazing
is constant. Horses do even greater injury, through biting the crowns of
the plants too closely; but sheep injure alfalfa pastures more than any
of these animals, when the grazing is close, owing to the extent to
which they trim off the leaves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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