Sweet Clover: Utilization

Part 1

Transcriber Note

Text emphasis is denoted as Italic.

SWEET CLOVER: UTILIZATION

H. S. COE

Assistant Agronomist, Forage-Crop Investigations

FARMERS' BULLETIN 820 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry

WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief

Washington, D. C. May 1917

WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1917

SWEET CLOVER may be utilized for feeding purposes, as pasturage, hay, or ensilage. With the possible exception of alfalfa on fertile soil, sweet clover, when properly handled, will furnish as much nutritious pasturage from early spring until late fall as any other legume. It seldom causes bloat.

Stock may refuse to eat sweet clover at first, but this distaste can be overcome by keeping them on a field of young plants for a few days.

As cattle crave dry roughage when pasturing on sweet clover, they should have access to it. Straw answers this purpose very well.

An acre of sweet clover ordinarily will support 20 to 30 sholes.

On account of the succulent growth, it is often difficult, in humid climates, to cure the first crop of the second season into a good quality of hay.

When seeded without a nurse crop, one cutting of hay may be obtained the first year in the North and two or three cullings in the South. Two cuttings are often obtained in the South after grain harvest. The second year a cutting of hay and a seed crop usually are harvested.

Sweet clover should never be permitted to show flower buds before it is cut for hay. It is very important that the first crop of the second season be cut so high that a new growth will develop. When the plants have made a growth of 36 to 40 inches it may be necessary to leave the stubble 10 to 12 inches high.

In cutting the first crop of the second season it is a good plan to have extension shoe soles made for the mower, so that a high stubble may be left. In some sections of the country sweet clover as a silage plant is gaining in favor rapidly.

This crop has given excellent results as a feed for cattle and sheep. Experiments show that it compares favorably with alfalfa.

Sweet clover has proved to be a profitable soil-improving crop. The large, deep roots add much humus to the soil and improve the aeration and drainage. As a rule, the yield of crops following sweet clover is increased materially.

Being a biennial, this crop lends itself readily to short rotations.

Sweet clover is a valuable honey plant, in that in all sections of the country it secretes an abundance of nectar.

This bulletin discusses only, the utilization of sweet clover. A discussion of the growing of the crop may be found in Farmers' Bulletin 797.

SWEET CLOVER: UTILIZATION.

The growing of this crop has been discussed in a previous publication, Farmers' Bulletin 797, entitled "Sweet Clover; Growing the Crop."

CONTENTS.

Page.

General statement of the uses of sweet clover 3

Part 2

Sweet clover as a pasture crop 4

Sweet clover hay 10

Sweet clover as a silage crop 20

Sweet clover as a soiling crop 22

Sweet clover as a feed 23

Sweet clover as a soil-improving crop 28

Sweet clover in rotations 31

Sweet clover as a honey plant 32

GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE USES OF SWEET CLOVER.

The utilization of sweet clover as a feed for all classes of live stock has increased rapidly in many parts of the country, owing primarily to the excellent results obtained by many farmers who have used this plant for pasturage or hay, and also to the fact that feeding and digestion experiments conducted by agricultural experiment stations show that it is practically equal to alfalfa and red clover as a feed.

As a pasture plant, sweet clover is superior to red clover, and possibly alfalfa, as it seldom causes bloat, will grow on poor soils, and is drought resistant. The favorable results obtained from the utilization of this crop for pasturage have done much to promote its culture in many parts of the United States. On account of the succulent, somewhat stemmy growth of the first crop the second year, difficulty is often experienced in curing the hay in humid sections, as it is necessary to cut it at a time when weather conditions are likely to be unfavorable. When properly cured the hay is relished by stock.

At the present time sweet clover is used to only a limited extent for silage, but its use for this purpose should increase rapidly, as the results thus far obtained have been very satisfactory.

In addition to the value of sweet clover as a feed, it is one of the best soil-improving crops adapted to short rotations which can be grown. When cut for hay, the stubble and roots remain in the soil, and when pastured, the uneaten parts of the plants, as well as the manure made while animals are on pasture, are added to the soil and benefit the succeeding crops. In addition to humus, sweet clover, in common with all legumes, adds nitrogen to the soil. This crop is grown in many sections of the country primarily to improve soils, and the benefits derived from it when handled in this manner have justified its use, as the yields of succeeding crops usually are increased materially.

The different species of sweet clover are excellent honey plants, as they produce nectar over a long period in all sections of the United States.

SWEET CLOVER AS A PASTURE CROP.

With the possible exception of alfalfa on fertile soils, no other leguminous crop will furnish as much nutritious pasturage from early spring until late fall as sweet clover when it is properly handled. Live stock which have never been fed sweet clover may refuse to eat it at first, but this distaste is easily overcome by turning them on the pasture in the spring, as soon as the plants start growth (fig. 1). Many cases are on record where stock have preferred sweet clover to other forage plants. The fact that it may be pastured earlier in the spring than many forage plants and that it thrives throughout the hot summer months makes it a valuable addition to the pastures on many farms. Sweet clover is an especially valuable forage plant for poor soils where other crops make but little growth, and it is upon such soils that thousands of acres of this crop are furnishing annually abundant pasturage for all kinds of live stock. In many portions of the Middle West, where the conditions are similar to those of southeastern Kansas, it bids fair to solve the serious pasturage problems. Native pastures which will no longer provide more than a scant living for a mature steer on 4 or 5 acres, when properly seeded to sweet clover will produce sufficient forage to carry at least one animal to the acre throughout the season. In addition to this, a crop of hay or a seed crop may be harvested from a portion of the land when it is so fenced that the stock may be confined to certain parts of the field at specific times. Land which is too rough or too depleted for cultivation, or permanent pastures which have become thin and weedy, may be improved greatly by drilling in, after disking, a few pounds of sweet-clover seed per acre. Not only will the sweet clover add considerably to the quality and quantity of the pasturage but the growth of the grasses will be improved by the addition of large quantities of humus and nitrogen to the soil.

Sweet clover has proved to be an excellent pasture crop on many of the best farms in the North-Central States. In this part of the country it may be seeded alone and pastured from the middle or latter part of June until frost, or it may be sown with grain and pastured after harvest.

When sweet clover has been seeded two years in succession on separate fields, the field sown the first year may be pastured until the middle of June, when the stock should be turned on the spring seeding. When handled in this manner excellent pasturage is provided throughout the summer, and a hay or seed crop may be harvested from the field seeded the previous season.

Some of the best pastures in Iowa consist of a mixture of Kentucky bluegrass, timothy, and sweet clover. On a farm observed near Delmar, Iowa, stock is pastured on meadows containing this mixture from the first part of April to the middle of June. From this time until the first part of September the stock is kept on one-half to two-thirds the total pasture acreage. The remainder of the pasture land is permitted to mature a seed crop. After the seed crop is harvested the stock again is turned on this acreage, where they feed on the grasses and first-year sweet-clover plants until cold weather. The seed which shatters when the crop is cut is usually sufficient to reseed the pastures. By handling his pasture land in this manner, the owner of the farm has always had an abundance of pasture and at the same time has obtained each year a crop of 2 to 4 bushels of recleaned seed to the acre from one-third to one-half of his pasture land. This system has been in operation on one field for 20 years and not until the last two year's has bluegrass showed a tendency to crowd out the sweet clover. It is essential that sufficient stock be kept on the pastures to keep the plants eaten rather closely, so that at all times there will be an abundance of fresh shoots.

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