Growing Vetch For Hay
Categories:
Grains and Forage Crops
How many pounds of vetch seed should be sown to the acre? How many tons
per acre in the crop? As I desire to change my crop, having to some
extent exhausted the soil with oats, how advisable will it be to sow
wheat with the vetch to give it something to climb on? If so, and wheat
is not desirable under the circumstances, what? In using vetch for horse
fodder, how much barley should be fed with it per day for a driving
orse? For a draught horse? Is vetch sown and harvested at about the
same time as other crops?
Except in very frosty places, vetch can be sown after the rain begins at
about 40 to 60 pounds of seed to the acre. The yield will depend upon
the land and on the moisture supply, and cannot be prophesied. One
grower reports three tons of hay per acre near Napa. If the land usually
yields a good hay crop, it should yield a greater weight of vetch. In
mowing for hay purposes it is desirable to raise the vetch off the
ground to facilitate the action of the mower. Oats would be better than
wheat, because rather quicker in winter growth. If the vetch is to be
fed green, rye is a good grain, but not good for hay purposes because of
the hardness of the stem. There is no particular difference in the
plant-food requirements of the different grains, so that there is
nothing gained in that way in the choice of wheat. In feeding a combined
vetch and barley hay, the ration is balanced; the feeding of grain would
not be necessary, except in case of hard work under the same conditions
grain is usually fed to horses and in about the same amounts. Vetch
requires a longer season than ordinary oat or barley hay crop to make a
larger growth, consequently an early sowing is desirable.