The Book of Alfalfa: History, Cultivation and Merits / Its Uses as a Forage and Fertilizer

Considerable space in this volume is devoted to the discussion of soil and seeding, but their importance cannot well be over-estimated. Really the whole subject of alfalfa might well be treated under the two heads, “Seeding” and “Harvesting,” so very inclusive are these two phases of the subject. Without careful seeding one cannot have a crop to harvest, and without careful harvesting he might almost as well not have a crop. Both call for intelligence and painstaking farming, and much patience and hard work. But the rewards of these virtues and labors are heavy yields from the most valuable forage plant. If it is worth nine times as much as timothy, it can well demand a little more time and labor than the average crop.

GREAT VALUE OF LEAVES

The first point to accentuate as we approach the subject of harvesting is the preeminent value of the leaves. These contain from seventy-five to eighty per cent of the protein of the whole plant, that valuable compound that goes to produce milk and meat. It has been estimated that a ton of properly cured alfalfa leaves is equal in protein to 2800 pounds of wheat bran; and when it is also estimated by careful observers that the loss of leaves in harvesting, even under favoring circumstances, ranges from fifteen to thirty or more per cent it is readily seen that the harvesting is an important part in alfalfa haymaking.

WHEN TO CUT

For the best hay the cutting should begin when the alfalfa is about one-tenth in bloom. Of course, if the acreage is small, calling for but one or two days’ cutting, it might stand without particular harm until a fifth or fourth was in bloom. Cutting should be completed, if possible, by the time one-half is in bloom, as after that it is cut at a loss of leaves. As they have more experience the tendency among farmers is to cut alfalfa earlier than had before been believed at all desirable, and some experienced growers and feeders now insist upon cutting just before the blossoming stage is reached.

Experiments seem to show that horses like the hay that has been cut when at least half in bloom, or later, better than do other stock. For sake of the after effects on the plant, it is highly important that the first cutting be made in the early bloom, as, if it is delayed, the second crop starts more slowly and gives a lighter yield. Frequently a short delay in cutting the first crop means that the field will produce but two crops instead of three or four. So important is this that Prof. H. M. Cottrell declares that he has found it profitable to cut the first crop of a season in earliest bloom even if it were to be injured by being rained upon, or in fact entirely lost.

MOST PROTEIN IN EARLY CUTTINGS

The Utah experiment station found by a feeding test that the early cut alfalfa was worth far more than any later cutting. It reported:

The Kansas station found the protein content to be:

CONSTANT WATCHFULNESS DEMANDED

In humid regions, the alfalfa farmer at the time of the first cutting often finds himself in a trying position. The value of the leaves demands early cutting, and this may be just when it is likely to rain with great frequency. He knows that a wetting will injure his hay, and that this results in more or less loss of some of its most valuable parts from the hour of cutting until it is thoroughly cured. The Colorado station reports that alfalfa hay left out for fifteen days after cutting and rained on twice, lost 26.1 per cent of its feeding value. Hay left out for seven days and having only one light rain, lost 10 per cent. Another lot left out three days, without rain, lost 5 per cent. Wetting delays the curing, and by the washing the hay loses much sugar, dextrin and other soluble matters, and also develops fungi. However, the only thing to do is to cut, exercising good judgment of course as to the amount each day.

LOSSES IN CURING

Headden found, at the Colorado station, that in an average alfalfa plant the stems amounted to forty to fifty per cent of the weight, while with very leafy, small-stemmed plants the leaves sometimes form more than sixty per cent of the entire weight. The leaves were readily lost if the hay was not handled carefully. He concluded that the minimum loss from the falling off of the leaves and stems in careful haymaking amounts to from fifteen to twenty per cent; and in cases where conditions have been unfavorable, as much as sixty or even sixty-six per cent of the entire dry crop is lost. Stated in another way, with the best of conditions, and with great care, for every 1,700 pounds of hay taken off the field, at least 300 pounds of leaves and stems are left scattered on the ground, “and, in very bad cases, as much as 1,200 pounds may be left for each 800 pounds taken.” A study of these facts should induce the careful haymaker to use all possible skill in curing alfalfa, and they show that it will be profitable to expend more than the usual amount of labor in saving the leaves, considering that they are worth, pound for pound, nearly four times as much as the stems.

HARVESTING IN HUMID REGIONS

Ordinarily, it is not well to cut alfalfa immediately after a heavy rain, because the wet ground will operate against proper curing. Begin cutting in the morning, when the dew is well off. If the weather is fair, the tedder ought to follow about two hours behind the mower. It is a mistake to think that the sun is the great curing agent. Too long exposure to the sun makes the curing all the more unsatisfactory, besides drying the leaves in such a way that they crumble and drop off.

As long as alfalfa remains “alive” water will be exhaled from the surface of the leaves and be pumped constantly from the stalks in a natural way much as though they were still standing. On the other hand, if newly cut alfalfa is spread too long in hot sunshine, the leaves are scorched to such an extent that transpiration of moisture from pores becomes impossible. Hence, that in the stalks can only escape by simple evaporation, which is very slow. By this means much undesirable, in fact harmful, moisture in the hay is brought to the barn or stack, although the leaves of the hay are dry and crisp.

As J. E. Wing has well said in his bulletin (Bul. No. 129 prepared for the Pennsylvania department of agriculture), “there is a principle to be observed in making alfalfa hay that applies to making hay from all clovers. If it can be so managed that the leaves are not at once burned and dried to powder, the moisture from the stems is the more easily removed. Leaves are natural evaporators of sap; stems are not. Therefore, while the leaf has yet pliancy and some semblance of its natural condition, it is most efficiently carrying away the sap of the stem, but when it is dried up it no longer aids in drying the plant at all. Therefore, the best hay in all respects is made partly in the shade, in loosely turned windrows, or in narrow cocks.”

Two or three hours behind the tedder start the rake and keep it going regardless of the noon hour, and unless the hay is very heavy it may be put into small cocks, this to be completed before the dew forms. In humid regions, hay is cured best and with greatest safety by the use of hay-caps, and these should be put on the cocks also before the dew forms, and removed each morning. The hay may be left in these cocks for four or five days, as found necessary, and then stacked or stored in the barn. This may not follow, however, unless the weather is favorable. Many prefer to leave the hay in the windrows until the second morning, turning them by hand or otherwise before noon and putting into cocks in the afternoon, letting these stand for two or three days. If it is left in the cocks over three days, they should be moved or the plants under them will be smothered. All agree that alfalfa should not lie in the swath over two or three hours. Most who have ever used a tedder like it if the alfalfa is less than half in bloom. If half or more in bloom, the tedder may cause the breaking off and loss of many leaves. Most experiment stations recommend that the hay be put into small cocks on the day of the cutting, if the weather is at all fair, not risking it in the windrows over night. It is a fact that cocked green alfalfa, even without caps, will shed much rain, while when fairly well-cured it will not do so.

A Colorado farmer reported that he started the mower one morning as soon as the dew was off, followed it with the tedder one hour later, and with the rake one hour behind the tedder; he kept a force of men only two hours behind the rake putting the alfalfa, yet quite green, into small cocks. These stood through two days of heavy rain. Later the cocks were opened and found to be unharmed, and after one day the hay was put into stacks in excellent condition. This was a somewhat unusual circumstance, surely, and might not often occur in a climate less dry than that in some parts of Colorado.

A grower in southern Kansas, however, who harvests about one thousand tons of alfalfa per year, and is working with it nearly every day from the second week in May until November 10, insists that alfalfa, under the same conditions of rainfall, is much easier to save in fair feeding condition than red clover. He finds the side-delivery rake especially excellent for turning over the green or wet windrows to the sun and air with the least loss of leaves, and cured thus, after being wet, the natural color is better preserved. “That alfalfa hay has a higher feeding value than almost any other, even when saved under the most unfavorable circumstances, should be impressed upon the inexperienced.”

THE USE OF HAY-CAPS

Any man who goes into the business of raising alfalfa anywhere in the rain belt cannot well afford to ignore hay-caps as a part of his equipment. Comparatively the cost is slight and the trouble of using them small considered in the light of their great utility, although the expense, and the use and care of them may at first blush appear to be quite formidable. American haymakers do not seem to appreciate the bad effect of dew upon the color and aroma of all kinds of hay. Prof. F. H. Storer in his “Agriculture” (Vol. III, p. 559) says: “One advantage gained by the use of hay-caps to protect the cocks during the night, is that they hold in the raked-up warmth, and keep the hay from cooling off. Thus it happens that the hay not only improves a little as to dryness during the night, but is all ready to dry rapidly when the cocks are again exposed to the air and sunshine, on being uncovered in the morning. All this as a normal and constant benefit, to say nothing of the advantages derived from the caps in case light rains, or even heavy rains, should fall before the cocks are again opened. The caps keep dew from settling upon the hay, moreover, and thus prevent the loss of aromatic matters that would result if the dew were to dry off from the hay.”

“With regard to the exclusion of dew, it is not alone its power to carry off aroma that should be considered. When dew ‘falls’ it must tend to carry with it any particles of solid matter that may happen to be in the air from which it is deposited, and, in this way the spores of fungi, such as would cause the hay to mold, are put upon it. It can scarcely be questioned that many of the organisms deposited with the dew are likely to promote hurtful decomposition, especially in case the hay should remain or become damp, and the less of these organisms that infest the hay the better it will be.”

When the farmer considers that a ton of well-cured alfalfa hay is worth about as much as a ton of wheat bran, he ought to see that it is profitable to protect it from the rain and the dew. He would scarcely hesitate to provide suitable covering if he had several tons of bran in the field exposed to the elements. Hay-caps will soon pay for themselves by the finer quality of the hay they assure, aside from the larger quantity of the best grade that their protection guarantees.

Storer further says, “there can be no question as to the very great merit of hay-caps when properly used. They are simply pieces of stout, cotton cloth of suitable size, say 40 to 45 inches square as a minimum, (60 inches square would be far better—Author) which are thrown over the cocks when rain is imminent, or at nightfall. These cloths may have wooden pegs or some sort of weight attached to each corner to hold them in place; the pegs can be driven into the ground or pushed under the hay, as seems most suitable to the size of the cock or conditions of the weather. The porosity of the cotton cloth hinders dampness from collecting beneath it at the top of the cock which it covers.”

Curing alfalfa in dry regions where the problems and dangers of rainfall do not need any large consideration, is attended with few of the difficulties which confront the grower in a region of much humidity. In western Kansas and Nebraska, and in Texas and other states where summer rains are somewhat infrequent, the mowers start at the beginning and do not stop until the field or fields of alfalfa are all in the swath. The rakes follow close behind, frequently the side-delivery rake, and then the gathering implement, usually designated as a “go-devil,” keep only about a half-day behind, dragging the cured hay to the stack or rick where the horse-fork lifts and carries it to the center of the stack, to be distributed and placed by men with pitchforks. The market and feeding value of hay so cured and gathered, is deemed by some authorities as not the highest. Curing in the windrow alone is likely to be a mere drying (perhaps too rapid drying) of one side of the exposed portions. Alfalfa should cure successively in the swath, windrow, cock and stack or mow, to develop its greatest value. The man who has so many acres that he cannot cure it in this way might do better with fewer acres for hay, and pasture hogs on the remainder, or use the land for other crops. Still it is true that alfalfa even poorly cured has no inconsiderable feeding value. Many farmers in the West and Middle West claim to secure very good hay by early following the mower with the tedder, this with the rake, and then the “buncher,” letting the hay remain in bunches over night and dragging it to the stack the next day. Others take from the windrow to wagons by a hay-loader, preferably one operated by a belt.

After all is said and done, and regardless of thrift and yield, it is unquestionable that the grower of alfalfa in humid regions meets with difficulties in the matter of satisfactory curing that in some years are almost or quite disheartening, and of a character to which his brother in arid territory is virtually a total stranger. Curing in the two regions presents different problems, with advantage all the time favoring the man in the country of little rainfall.

Second and later cuttings are not so much endangered by rains as is the first, and, hence, these are usually cured in better condition. Notwithstanding this, virtually all tests point out that the first cutting has more feeding value and is better relished by all kinds of stock. Most farmers are agreed that it pays to cut every time the alfalfa blooms, up to the last of September in the North, and possibly a month later in the more southern latitudes. A few have reported that they prefer to make but two cuttings a year, claiming to realize a greater feeding value by so doing; but it seems that the loss in leaves and protein, together with the fact that live stock has less relish for the more mature cuttings, makes frequent cutting by far the most profitable.

To sum up, the points to be emphasized in cutting alfalfa for hay, and its treatment immediately after, are:

Cut in early bloom.

Handle as little as possible.

Prevent its being wet after cutting.

Cure if possible partly in the swath, in the windrow, in the cock and in the stack or mow.

Cut as often as it blooms, which will range from twice in New England to nine times a year in southern Oklahoma, southern California, Texas and Louisiana.

In a region of frequent rains protect with hay-caps.

HARVESTING FOR SEED

The first cutting should not be used for seed for three reasons: First, if that cutting is delayed until the seed has ripened, the second and third cuttings will be very light, and in the extreme northern alfalfa territory there may not be even a second. A stronger reason is that at the time of the first cutting, favorable weather is likely to be much less certain and rains will interfere with the stacking of the seed crop, which, to insure its best value, must be put in the stack or mow without wetting. Another is that the seed pods at that season are not usually so well filled and the proportion of fertile seeds is less because the bees and other insects have not so early in the season had time and opportunity to aid in the pollenation.

Cutting should be done when the greater proportion of the seeds are hard, but not sufficiently ripe to shell. At this stage a majority of the pods are turned a dark-brown color and the seeds are fully developed. Frequently the cutting can be raked into windrows after two hours if the weather is drying, and in two or three hours more put into cocks and let stand for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, as the weather may justify. It should, however, be well cured and thoroughly dry when put in the stack, or there is danger of heating, and stack-heating seriously injures the vitality of the seed. It is not uncommon, if extremely ripe, to leave the cutting in the swath only an hour or a half-hour, then stack, and let stand for autumn or later threshing. If allowed to stand in the stack for about thirty days, the entire mass goes through a sweating and curing process which makes the threshing easier, while less of the seed is left in the straw than would be if it had not stack-cured. In western Kansas many seed raisers cut their seed crop with a self-binder, put the sheaves in shocks the same day and thresh in about ten days, or put it into a stack to await a convenient threshing time. They claim to secure 20 per cent more of the seed in this way than if they cut with the ordinary mower. Others cut with a mower having a dropper attachment which leaves the alfalfa in small bunches at the will of the driver, in the center of the swath, and these are “straddled” by the team and the wheels of the mower in the subsequent rounds. These bunches are left for two or three days and then stacked. There is little, if any, danger from mold or spontaneous combustion in stacks of alfalfa cut for seed, but there is danger of the seed heating in the stack if stacked when damp. If bright, clean seed is expected, the stacks must be well topped with slough grass, or covered with tarpaulins or boards, or given other protection. It is better still to put the alfalfa intended for seed into a barn.

One Kansas farmer in the western part of the state reports that he used a self-binding harvester, shocked the sheaves like those of grain, let them stand ten days and then put in a mow, with no bad results.

YIELDS OF SEED

The yield of seed ranges all the way from two to thirteen bushels per acre, the normal yield in the seed regions being four to eight bushels. It is threshed with ordinary grain separators with seed attachments, although the clover-huller is usually preferred. No threshing machine cleans the seed satisfactorily or sufficiently, and a careful recleaning is necessary. Fanning mills or seed-cleaners are now made that will remove most weed seeds, seeds of dodder, and all light-weight and probably infertile alfalfa seeds. However, no raiser should by rights thresh, to say nothing of marketing, the seeds of the dodder or any other weed with his alfalfa; these should be cut out of the field with scythe, sickle or knife a month before the alfalfa is cut.

The threshed alfalfa straw is worth only about half as much as the hay, yet it makes excellent feed for horses, colts and calves. Or, if put into stacks of alfalfa of the third cutting, in alternate layers, it may be fed to any stock to good advantage, as it is relished quite as well as ordinary third cuttings, notwithstanding its lower feeding value.

THE THIRD CUTTING FOR SEED

Seed raisers in some instances, especially in Kansas, use the third cutting for seed, claiming that the pods are more uniformly filled and the seeds more generally fertile, due to the assistance of the bees in pollenation. They claim, too, that this cutting has fewer weeds and weed seeds than its predecessors; also that they are thus sure of two good hay crops, while often if they use the second crop for seed, the third crop is hardly worth more than the cutting. The only point left in favor of using the second cutting for seed, where the farmer is confident of a third, is that the protein value of the second is the lowest, and hence its hay can better be spared than that from any other cutting.

The raising of seed in the more humid eastern states should not, generally, be attempted, as it will not only interfere with obtaining full value in the hay crop, but the less fertile soil will not produce as vigorous seed as will the newer and richer lands west of the Missouri river. At present the best seed for general use is produced between that river and the Rocky mountains. Utah produces a hardy seed, but much if not most of it is raised under irrigation, and, hence, at least theoretically, not deemed best adapted for regions dependent entirely upon soil moisture from rains.