The woody growth of sweet clover as it reaches maturity and the bitter
taste due to coumarin have been the principal causes for live stock
refusing to eat it at first. On this account many farmers have assumed
it to be worthless as a feed. It is a fact that stock seldom eat the
hard, woody stems of mature plants, but it is true also that stock
eat sparingly of the coarse, fibrous growth of such legumes as red or
mammoth clover when they have been permitted to mature and have lost
much of their palatability. All kinds of stock will eat green sweet
clover before it becomes woody, or hay which has been cut at the proper
time and well cured, after they have become accustomed to it. Many
cases are on record in which cattle have refused alfalfa or red clover
when sweet clover was accessible. Milch cows have been known to refuse
a ration of alfalfa hay when given to them for the first time. Western
range cattle which have never been fed corn very often refuse to eat
corn fodder, or even corn, for a short time, and instances have come
under observation in which they ate the dried husks and left the corn
uneaten. When these cattle were turned on green grass the following
spring they browsed on the dead grass of the preceding season's growth,
which, presumably more closely resembled the grass to which they were
accustomed. Such preliminary observations should never be taken as
final, even when they represent the results of careful investigators.
When cowpeas were first introduced into certain sections of this
country much trouble was experienced in getting stock to eat the vines,
either when cured into hay or made into ensilage. This difficulty,
however, was soon overcome.
It is very true that stock which have never been pastured on sweet
clover or fed on the hay must become accustomed to it before they will
eat it, but the fact that sweet clover is now being fed to stock in
nearly every State indicates that the distaste for it can be overcome
easily and successfully. As sweet clover usually starts growth earlier
in the spring than other forage plants and as the early growth
presumably contains less coumarin than older plants, stock seldom
refuse to eat it at this time. Properly cured hay is seldom refused by
stock, especially if it is sprinkled with salt water when the animals
are salt hungry.