The Book of Alfalfa: History, Cultivation and Merits: Its Uses as a Forage and FertilizerCoburn, F. D. (Foster Dwight)
History
The Book of Alfalfa: History, Cultivation and Merits: Its Uses as a Forage and Fertilizer
Coburn, F. D. (Foster Dwight)
Alfalfa
Lot fed corn and prairie hay 8.27 cents
„ „ corn 90 per cent, oil meal 10 per cent, and
prairie hay 6.82 „
„ „ corn 90 per cent, oil meal 10 per cent, and
corn stover 6.09 „
„ „ corn 90 per cent, oil meal 10 per cent, and
sorghum hay 7.00 „
„ „ corn and alfalfa hay 6.04 „
Below is shown the cost under similar conditions with the two-year-olds,
(the cost of the corn and oil meal fed them having been slightly greater
than that fed the yearlings):
Lot fed corn and prairie hay 8.23 cents
„ „ corn 90 per cent, oil meal 10 per cent, and
prairie hay 8.27 „
„ „ corn 90 per cent, oil meal 10 per cent, and
corn stover 6.49 „
„ „ corn 90 per cent, oil meal 10 per cent, and
sorghum hay 7.87 „
„ „ corn and alfalfa hay 6.89 „
Among the deductions from these experiments, Professor Smith records the
following, bearing upon the use of alfalfa:
“Alfalfa is much superior to prairie hay when the grain consists of corn
alone. It also proved to be a cheaper source of protein than oil meal.
The returns on the cattle fed alfalfa hay, were the alfalfa figured at
$11.14 per ton, would have been as great as the returns on prairie hay
at $6 per ton, with corn as the grain ration at 39 cents per bushel. In
comparison with prairie hay at $6 when oil meal worth $28 per ton was a
part of the grain ration, the alfalfa returned a value of $8.28 per ton.
(In these experiments the cost of all alfalfa hay and all prairie hay
was figured at the one price of $6 per ton.--Author.)
“Bright, well-cured corn stover fed with an equal weight of alfalfa, the
grain consisting of corn alone, gave slightly larger gains than corn and
alfalfa, and proved the most economical ration in the experiment. The
addition of corn stover may have improved, to some extent, the corn and
alfalfa ration by furnishing greater variety, and by its tendency to
check scours sometimes caused by alfalfa. The stover fed with alfalfa
returned a value of $4.57 per ton in comparison with alfalfa at $6 per
ton as the sole roughness.
“By feeding alfalfa hay, which is a protein-rich roughness, extremely
palatable and readily masticated, in place of prairie hay with corn
alone, 14 per cent less grain was required for each pound of gain on
two-year-olds and 27 per cent less on yearlings.
“Alfalfa hay, fed once per day in connection with corn and well-cured
cornstalks, furnished sufficient protein for two-year-olds to make the
three foods a combination producing heavy and very economical
gains--more economical than any other ration in the experiment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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