Harvesting For Hay
Category:
ALFALFA
Ordinarily, the methods of making the hay crop
are the same as those followed in curing medium red clover. The mammoth
variety, however, frequently requires a longer season in which to cure,
owing, first, to the heavier character of the growth, and second, to the
larger stems of the latter. After it has been mown there is greater
reason for using the tedder in getting it ready for being raked, and it
calls for more curing before it is put into cocks. The larger the
proportion of the timothy in the crop, the more easily it is cured. It
is ready for cutting when in full bloom, and loses more than the medium
red when cutting is too long deferred, because of the larger proportion
of coarse stems in the crop. It is also relatively more injured by rain
in the cocks, since it sheds rain even less readily than the medium red
clover, and the same is true of it in the stack.
Some farmers cure mammoth clover in its green form in the mow as they
also cure the medium red variety, but the same objections apply to
curing it thus that apply to the similar curing of the medium red. (See
page 102.) Others cure it in the mow by storing good bright straw,
preferably oat straw, in alternate layers along with the clover. From
one-third to one-half the quantity of the straw as compared with the hay
will suffice for such curing, varying with the degree of the wilting in
the hay. Clover cut in the morning after the dew has lifted may be thus
stored the same day. Where the facilities are present such a method of
curing mammoth clover may be eminently wise in showery weather. The
natural color of the hay and blossoms is thus preserved and the straw is
eaten with avidity, because of what it has imbibed from the clover.
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Securing SeedPrevious:
Pasturing
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