SWEET CLOVER AS A PASTURE CROP._Sweet Clover: Utilization

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.

Whenever the first crop of the second year is not needed for hay or

silage it can be used for no better purpose than pasturage. In fact,

it is better to pasture the fields until the middle of June, as this

affords one of the most economical and profitable ways of handling the

first crop. In addition to its value for pasture, grazing induces the

plants to send out many young shoots close to the ground, so that when

the plants are permitted to mature seed a much larger number of stalks

are formed than would be the case if the first crop were cut for hay.

The hay crop is likely to be cut so close to the ground that the plants

will be killed, whereas but little danger of killing the plants arises

from close pasturing early in the season. Excellent stands of sweet

clover will produce an abundance of pasturage for two to three mature

steers per acre from early spring to the middle of June.

Cattle which are pasturing on sweet clover alone crave dry feed. Straw

has been found to satisfy this desire and straw or hay should be

present in the meadow at all times, After stock are removed from the

field it is an excellent plan to go over it with a mower, setting the

cutter bar so as to leave the stubble 6 to 8 inches high. This will

even up the stand, so that the plants will ripen seed at approximately

the same date.

Experiments by many farmers in the Middle West show that sweet clover

is an excellent pasture for dairy cattle. When cows are turned on

sweet clover from grass pastures the flow of milk is increased and its

quality improved. Other conditions being normal, this increase in milk

production will continue throughout the summer, as the plants produce

an abundance of green forage during the hot, dry months when grass

pastures are unproductive. If pastures are handled properly they will

carry at least one milk cow to the acre during the summer months.

In many parts of the country sweet clover has proved to be an excellent

pasturage crop for hogs. When it is utilized for this purpose it

usually is seeded alone and pastured for two seasons. The hogs may be

turned on the field the first year as soon as the plants have made a

6-inch growth. From this time until late fall an abundance of forage

is produced, as pasturing induces the plants to send out many tender,

succulent branches. Pasturing the second season may begin as soon as

growth starts in the spring. If the field is not closely grazed the

second season it is advisable to clip it occasionally, leaving an

8-inch stubble, so as to produce a more succulent growth.

An acre of sweet-clover pasture ordinarily will support 20 to 30 shotes

in addition to furnishing a tight cutting of hay (fig. 2). For the best

growth of the hogs, they should be fed each day 2 pounds of grain per

hundredweight of the stock. Hogs are very fond of sweet clover roots

and should be ringed before being turned on the pasture. The tendency

to root may generally be overcome by adding some protein to the grain

ration. Meat meal serves this purpose very well.

The Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station conducted an interesting

pasturing experiment with spring pigs in 1910, In this experiment, pigs

weighing approximately 38 pounds each were pastured for a period of

141 days on two plats of red clover, a plat of Dwarf Essex rape, and a

plat of yellow biennial sweet clover. The pigs pasturing on each plat

received a ration of ear corn. The ration given to the pigs on one plat

of red clover and on that of rape was supplemented with meat meal to

the extent of one-tenth of the ear corn ration. The feed given to the

pigs pasturing on sweet clover was supplemented with meat meal at the

same rate during only the last 57 days of the test. The red clover was

seeded in 1908 and reseeded in 1909, so that the plat contained a very

good stand of plants at least one year old. The sweet clover was seeded

in the spring of 1910, while the rape was sown on April 4, 1910, in

24-inch rows. The pigs were turned on the forage plats on June 22.

[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Hogs pasturing on sweet clover.]

The results of this experiment, as presented in Table I, show that

sweet clover carried more pigs to the acre and produced cheaper gains

and a greater net profit per acre than either red clover or rape. To

judge from the date of seeding of the plants tested, it was to be

expected that the pigs pasturing on the sweet clover would not gain

as rapidly at first as those pasturing on the other forage plants,

as the growth of the sweet clover at this time was undoubtedly much

less than that of the other crops. This assumption is borne out by the

results given for the first 84 days of the test. During this period

the pigs on the rape made a net gain of $11.55 per acre and those on

the red clover $6.86 per acre more than those on the sweet clover. In

these computations corn was valued at 50 cents per bushel and hogs at

$6 per hundredweight. During the latter part of the experiment there

was but a scant growth of red clover on the plats, while the sweet

clover produced an abundance of forage, and during this period of the

experiment the pigs pasturing on sweet clover made a net gain of $10.14

per acre more than those pasturing on red clover and $17.41 per acre

more than those pasturing on rape. (Table I.) The difference in net

profits probably would have been greater had white sweet clover been

used instead of yellow sweet clover, as it makes a larger growth and

contains approximately the same ratio of food elements.

Table I.--Relative merits of Dwarf Essex rape, red clover, and yellow

sweet clover when pastured by spring pigs for 141 days, June 22 to

November 10, 1910.

---------------------------+------+-------+-------+--------+---------------+--------+-------

Forage tested, plat area, | of | per | all | gain |Shelled| Meat | of |

---------------------------+------+-------+-------+--------+-------+-------+--------+--------

plus one-tenth meat meal.| 18 | 37.8 |2,801.7| 1.10 | 292.5 | 33.99 | $3.79 | ......

Reduced to acre basis. | 20 | .... |3,113.0| .... | ..... | ..... | ..... | $88.64

| | | | | | | |

alone[4]. | 15 | 39.0 |1,790.0| .84 | 370.6 | None. | 3.71 | ......

Reduced to acre basis. | 18.75| .... |2,237.5| .... | ..... | ..... | ..... | 51.20

| | | | | | | |

plus one-tenth meat meal.| 15 | 39.0 |2,394.0| 1.13 | 299.3 | 34.77 | 3.84 | ......

Reduced to acre basis. | 18.75| .... |2,992.5| .... | ..... | ..... | ..... | 64.55

| | | | | | | |

one-tenth meat meal. | 18 | 37.8 |2,594.0| 1.02 | 313.6 | 24.70 | 3.70 | ......

Reduced to acre basis. | 22.60| .... |3,242.5| .... | ..... | ..... | ..... | 74.50

---------------------------+------+-------+-------+--------+-------+-------+--------+---------

[2] Corn valued at 50 cents per bushel, meat meal at $2.50 per

hundredweight.

[3] Hogs valued at $6 per hundredweight.

[4] During the first 84 days of the test, practically two-thirds of the

time, a limited ration of corn was given, while during the last 57 days

the pigs received a full feed.

[5] The pigs pasturing on sweet clover received meat meal only during

the last 57 days of the experiment.

An experiment reported by the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment

Station shows that a mixture of rape and sweet clover makes an

exceptionally fine pasture for hogs. In this experiment the mixture

of rape and sweet clover produced more pasturage than alfalfa and was

preferred to alfalfa by the hogs. It was seeded at the rate of 6 pounds

of Dwarf Essex rape and 10 pounds of sweet clover to the acre.

Sheep relish sweet clover and make rapid gains when pastured on it.

Care must be taken to see that pastures are not overstocked with sheep,

as they are likely to eat the plants so close to the ground as to kill

them. This is especially true the first year, before the plants have

formed crown buds. Yellow biennial sweet clover probably would not

suffer from this cause as much as the white species, because the plants

make a more prostrate growth and are not likely to be eaten so closely

to the ground.

Horses and mules do well on sweet-clover pastures. On account of the

high protein content sweet clover provides excellent pasturage for

young stock. No cases of slobbering have been noted with horses.