Horse stock of all ages find alfalfa pasturage conducive to growth, fattening, and their general health. If the foliage is short and scant, horses are severe on the fields used in winter because they are able to crop close, and not infrequently paw loose dirt away from the plants, biting off the crowns a fourth or even half inch below the surface of the ground. It is easy to understand the loss of the bud or growing point may be detrimental to the growth and usefulness of the plants, causing many to die, resulting in bare spots later to be overgrown by noxious weeds and grasses. After the damage is done there remains no remedy but to plow up the field and reseed, or to disk thoroughly and then reseed the bare spots. If the field has not deteriorated too much, the latter is much to be preferred. By diligence and careful treatment, or prompt action closely following any encroachments upon the life of the plants, the quality and yield may be maintained and the profits relatively enhanced. Alfalfa has wonderful recuperative powers, but continuous nipping of the crowns will do most serious harm and eventually decrease the yield not a little.
EXPERIENCES WITH CATTLE
One man reports turning eighty steers into one alfalfa field where there was running water, and a second herd into another field without running water, but water ran through a wild grass meadow adjoining, into which this herd was driven every afternoon and turned back into the alfalfa the next morning. The first herd suffered no loss, while five valuable animals died in the second field on the second day, before they could be removed. When all were put into the first field there was no more bloat. Another reported turning cows into a small field where there was a trough full of water all the time. Here, as in the case of the steers, a full feed was given before the cows were turned on the alfalfa. Before noon one cow had to be relieved by a trocar, and another by being driven rapidly about the field. The wherefores of such occurrences present a problem yet to be solved. Certainly there is more danger in pasturing cows and sheep on alfalfa than most people care to risk. Aside from the financial loss, there is, also, the humane side of the question.
A very fair statement, representative of those made by parties who pasture cattle on alfalfa without losses from bloat, is the following, given to the author by Mr. S. C. Hanna, an extensive and reputable breeder of Shorthorns, in Elk county, (southern) Kansas, who says:
“I have been pasturing alfalfa successfully without bloating my cattle for a number of years; in fact, I have never lost an animal from alfalfa bloat. As I am raising high priced, pure bred Shorthorns and graze them on my meadows more or less at all times of year, I always sow a good mixture of English blue-grass (Festuca elatior) and orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata) with it, making alfalfa the base and principal seeding. I am very partial to orchard grass in this mixture because it makes considerable hay, and springs up so quickly after each mowing. In this section orchard grass is a stayer, and will hold its own against all comers.
“I always am cautious when we first turn the cattle on alfalfa, seeing to it that they have a good fill on something else beforehand, and hold them at first on some part of the field where the mixed grasses are the thickest, so they can graze there first. In twenty minutes they will be safe to go where they wish, and may be allowed to run at will thereafter. I find, however, that on the clear alfalfa meadows there is almost no danger from bloat after the plants have begun to bloom. I usually have some hay stacked in the pastures, that the cattle may run to. I have, however, pastured alfalfa in all stages where there would be perhaps twenty acres of alfalfa in one place, and some prairie grass and also tame grasses in the same enclosure, and had no bloat. This has been, too, sometimes in May and June, when showers were frequent and the alfalfa most succulent. It would seem that the cattle will take care of themselves if they have a good chance. I usually superintend these changes personally, and see that all conditions are right.
“I find we get almost as much hay from the mixed fields as from the exclusively alfalfa meadows, and the fall aftermath is much better. The theory that alfalfa will not flourish with the other grasses is wrong. My favorite meadows contain a mixture of this kind, including some red clover, and I have cut four good crops of hay from them this season, after pasturing moderately from March 15 to May 1. I always get the stock horses and mules on pasture by March 15, and the cattle about April 1, and move them to wild grass prairie pasture about May 1, except a few that we will keep on the meadows all season. These we change from one field to another when the alfalfa becomes tall enough to be trampled down or damaged.
“If my object was only to raise hay for market, I would sow the alfalfa alone and keep the stock off altogether, but for my purpose I prefer a mixture. By doing my way I never miss a good stand, and the mixture keeps down the foxtail and crab grass. I have been sowing this mixture for about fifteen years, and have over 300 acres.”
Mr. J. F. Stodder of Cowley county, Kansas, a prominent breeder of pure bred cattle, makes this statement to the author, which is simply further testimony that a mixture of other grasses with alfalfa intended for grazing greatly diminishes, if it does not entirely eliminate, the risk and dangers of bloat:
“I have several fields of mixed grasses. These contain enough alfalfa so that we cut them for hay at regular times, and the proportion of grasses and alfalfa is largely in favor of the latter. In such fields as these I pasture cattle at will, and have never seen any evidence of bloat therefrom. But my experience with the straight alfalfa fields leads me to be very cautious. I find that I can pasture them at times without danger, and at other times a large proportion of the cattle will bloat. It is possible that I have made the statement that I never lost cattle by pasturing alfalfa, which is true, because we have always been lucky enough to discover the ailing animals in time to give them relief.”