OCR Text |
Show LEGUMES USEFUL AS GRAIN FEED Each Hen Could Profitably Use Pound of Hay Daily. The Ohio experiment station has done some valuable work in testing test-ing out the use of alfalfa, clover and soy bean hay as substitutes for green feed for the. laying flock. They found that each bird could make profitable use of about one pound of leafy, fine-stemmed bright hay per month. The hay should not be coarse or contain a high per cent of crude fiber. It is nearly always possible to get at least a limited amount of such hay from the last cutting of alfalfa or the second cutting of clover. A considerable number of farmers are cutting a small portion of their alfalfa late In the fall, after the removal of the last regular regu-lar crop. The least mature of the soy beans, when they have been cut for hay, are equally satisfactory.' These Ohio tests Indicate that these three, alfalfa, red clover and soy beans, are equally valuable If cut and cured properly. In these tests the feeding of the hay In hoops of poultry netting was found to be very satisfactory. Cutting the hay in. half-inch lengths made the feeding easier and the hens ate more. A silage cutter or feed chopper chop-per can be used to cut the hay. The shatterings that accumulate where the alfalfa or clover Is handled in feeding the cattle or other live stock is equally valuable if the hay is of good quality and not injured by weathering or heating heat-ing in barn or stack. Alfalfa meal made from green hay in the mash or fed as a separate part of the ration, Is another green feed substitute. |