Show pasture J re studies for dairy TL al ry farm plan to compare Compa rei rotation I 1 system with continuous grazing method taking a tip from the european dairy fart danners ners who follow a rotation and fertilization system of pasture management the united states department part ment of agriculture has launched a past pasture u re to compare the rotation system with the continuous grazing method practiced in this his t country the project will be conducted operatively cooperatively co by the afie bureau of dairy industry and the bureau of plant industry atthe at the departments dairy experiment peri erli ment nent farm at beltsville md method of testing A 12 acre field hits has been seeded to t 0 a mixture of grasses and conj legumes legume sand and divided tor for pasturing into 6 paddocks of 2 acres each sixteen or twenty high producing cows will be turned into the alie first paddock and kept there four or five days until they have consumed the cream of the pasturage then they will be moved to the next nest paddock and 10 or 12 young dairy an animals emals will take their place to clean up the remaining pasturage throughout grit the season both groups of cattle will be moved forward to succeeding paddocks at interval of four or five days As each plot Is finished by the young cattle the droppings will be scattered with a drag tooth harrow and nitrate of soda will be applied at the rate of pounds per acre this will make at least four treatments for each plot during the season the 12 nere acre held field was seeded last october to kentucky bluegrass redtop timothy orchard grass meadow fescue italian ry gruss egrass and perennial ry egrass late in february a further seeding was made consisting of red clover white clover alsike alseike clover and lespedeza at the time of see seeding fling pounds of and pounds of sulphate of potash per acre were applied to the lie field Sli similar ullar ap of phosphate und and potash will be made each fall or early winter as top dressings also an application of limestone every four years if needed another pasture for comparative purposes another 32 12 acre held field will he be pastured con continuously with milk cows in such us its the condition of the grass war rants this held field will lie be divided into three paddocks two of which will he bc seeded the same ns as tle rotation pas ture one will be treated with the same fertilizers find and the other will be untreated the third paddock will be seeded to reed canary gross and fertilized the same as the others I 1 the comparative value of the two systems will be measured by a consideration of the carrying capacity the effect on the pasture plants gain in ili weight of the animals and quan city of milk produced and other factors |