When sweet-clover hay is cut at the right time and cured properly it
is eaten readily by all classes of live stock. As the hay is rich in
protein, growing stock make gains on it comparable to the gains of
those fed on alfalfa. The quantity and quality of the milk produced
when the hay is fed to cows are approximately the same as when other
legumes are used. Hay which is cut the first year is fine stemmed and
leafy and resembles alfalfa in general appearance. Unless it is cut at
the proper time the second year, it will be stemmy and unpalatable.
Feeding experiments show that it contains practically as much
digestible protein as alfalfa and more than red clover, but the hay is
not as palatable as red clover or alfalfa when the plants are permitted
to become coarse and woody. When sweet clover is seeded in the spring
without a nurse crop in the northern and western sections of the United
States, a cutting of hay may be obtained the same autumn. When it is
seeded with a nurse crop in these regions, the rainfall during the
late summer and early fall will largely determine whether the plants
will make sufficient growth to be cut for hay. On fertile, well-limed
soils in the East, in the eastern North-Central States, in Iowa, and
in eastern Kansas a cutting of hay is commonly obtained after grain
harvest when the rainfall is normal or above normal. In many sections
of the country two, and at times three, cuttings of hay may be obtained
the second year (fig. 3).
In the South two, and sometimes three, cuttings may be obtained the
first year if the seeding is done without a nurse crop. When the seed
is sown in the spring with oats, two cuttings may be secured after oat
harvest. Three cuttings may be obtained the second year, although it is
the common practice to cut the first crop for hay and the second crop
for seed.