Temporary or annual pasture crops are mainly important in connection with swine raising. Various systems of such crops have been devised to furnish successive pastures. Florida has a long list of such crops that can be utilized. Among them are oats, rye, rape, sorghum, peanuts, cow peas, chufas, sweet potatoes, corn and velvet beans. Under certain conditions the cattleman may have to utilize one or more of these crops, but corn and velvet beans is the one that is the most important.
The story of the velvet bean is really one of the romances of agriculture. Introduced into Florida about 1875 from some unknown source, it first attracted attention as a forage about 1890. Until 1914 it was but little grown outside of Florida. In 1915 the crop was certainly less than 1,000,000 acres. In 1916 it had increased to 2,500,000, and in 1917 to about 6,000,000 acres. The explanation of this remarkable increase was the finding of earlier "sports." Three of these appeared independently—one in Alabama, two in Georgia. These early varieties immensely increased the area over which the velvet bean can be grown, so that now it embraces practically all of the cotton belt. These early sports of the old Florida are most grown, but the Chinese velvet bean, introduced by the Department, and the hybrids developed by the Florida Experiment Station, are important. In spite of vigorous search, the native home of the Florida velvet bean yet remains unknown, but it is probably in the Indo-Malayan region of Southern Asia.
The importance of the velvet bean to the live stock industry now developing in the South can scarcely be over-estimated. Grown with corn, it increases the corn crop year after year, and besides furnishes a large amount of nutritious feed to be eaten by the animals when the grass pasture season is over. It reduces greatly the cost of finishing of beef animals for market. This year the velvet bean has been no small factor in helping out the great shortage of foodstuffs, quantities of them having been shipped to Texas. Finally, it has resulted in a new industry for the South, namely, the manufacture of velvet bean meal, which has already won for itself a large demand.
Hay Plants.
The problem of producing hay in Florida is made particularly difficult by frequent rains, except in the fall of the year. The bulk of the hay now produced is from the crab grass that volunteers in cultivated fields. In recent years much Natal hay has been grown for market. Para grass hay is of good quality, and Rhodes grass of very fine quality. Other hays are made from cow peas, cow peas and sorghum mixed, Mexican clover, beggar-weed, oats, millet, etc.
The subject of hay, however, is vital only to the city market. To the live stock man it is of minor importance, as silage furnishes so satisfactory a substitute.
Ensilage Crops.
Corn is, of course, the standard crop for ensilage, and its relative importance in Florida is not far different from that in other States.
Under certain conditions sorghums will yield greater tonnage than corn, and the resulting silage is but slightly inferior.
Florida possesses, in addition, a unique silage plant in Japanese sugar cane. The perennial nature of this plant and its high yielding capacity make it a cheap fodder to grow. It may be utilized as green feed, as silage, as dry fodder, or for pasture. Your own experiment station has published the best information we have on this forage. As a feed for dairy cows there can be no question of its high value, either green or as silage. There still seems to be question, however, as to the relative value of Japanese cane silage as compared with corn silage. In Southern Florida the cane stays green all winter, as a rule, so that there is no necessity for ensiling it for winter feed. It may well prove, however, that a supply of Japanese cane silage will prove good insurance against periods of shortage even in South Florida.