ETTER ARMING EGUME-GRASS. With A JAN Circular 649 UNIVERSITY OF ILL1NOIS COL,LEGE OF AGRICULTURE. !. '1' ot tu..1nufs

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1 > ~ ETTER ARMING With A EGUME-GRASS JAN Circular 649!. '1' ot tu..1nufs UNIVERSITY OF ILL1NOIS COL,LEGE OF AGRICULTURE Extension Service in Agriculture and Home Economics

2 DEAR COOPERATOR: I t is good to know of,your interest in growing more legumes and grasses on your farm. I'm~sure you will find that your decision is a sound one - one that will pay dividends in the years ahead through higher crop yields, improved soil conservation, and more efficient livestock production. You and other Illinois farmers are to be congratulated on the progress you have made in soil improvement and better livestock management. A great many of you have followed a soil-testing program for years and on the basis of these tests have applied the limestone, phosphate, and potash needed. We have made considerable progress in adopting sound erosion-control practices. At the same time, I think many of us agree that here in Illinois we have lagged in our use of large enough acreages of legumes and grasses. Our research work here at the College of Agriculture shows that it takes more than lime, phosphate, and potash to build up fertility and produce high crop yields. Legumes are necessary to supply nitrogen and organic matter and to produce good soil tilth. We also know that good legumegrass hay and pasture offer one of the most perfectly balanced rations for mature cattle and sheep. Too often we overlook the possibilities of lowering feed and labor costs and increasing profits by growing an abundance of legumes or legume-grass mixtures for pasture and hay. Because of the need for a more balanced legume-grass program on Illinois farms, I have asked my colleagues in a number of departments here at the College to give maximum attention to this phase of farming. These men are working with the farm advisers in many counties of the state to help give you needed information on the legume-grass program. This circular is one of their accomplishments. I hope you will find it useful. As you develop your program, you will want to keep in touch with your county farm adviser, and I urge you to feel free to write to the College of Agriculture for any additional information you may need. Sincerely yours, H. P. RUSK D ean and Director

3 The Legume - Grass Crop Is the Key To a Permanent, Profitable Agriculture Here are the reasons why 1. Legumes or legumes and grass have to be grown regularly to build up and maintain soil fertility. There is no substitute for legumes in soil building. 2. Legumes and grass make up the backbone of an erosion-control program. They provide a protective cover for sloping fields. By adding organic matter and improving soil tilth they reduce the erosion caused by row crops like corn. 3. Green pastures and high-quality legumegrass hay are essential for effici ent dairy and livestock production. Heavy crops of legumes and grass should be grown on Illinois cropland one-fourth to one-half of the time and on rougher land all the time. Most soil-fertility and erosion-control problems and many livestock-production problems will then be solved. This is the 'main goal in a permanent and profitable Illinois agriculture. Lack of legumes is a major problem on many farms. This is shown by barren or weedy pastures, undernourished livestock, and poor crop yields. On sloping land eroded fields are another result of not growing enough legumes. Little headway can be made in real soil improvement and soil conservation or in efficient dairy and livestock production without plenty of high-yielding and high-quality legumes and grasses.

4 What Is a Balanced Legume-Grass Plan? FOR a successful and practical legume-grass program, the acreage of these crops must be balanced to fit the needs of the land and the livestock. Grow enough high-producing legumes and grasses 1. To supply plenty of nitrogen and organic matter for good soil tilth and high crop yields. 2. To control erosion where the land is sloping. 3. To supply all the green pasture and highquality hay that you need.

5 A Balanced Legume-Grass Program Pays Off SOIL BUILDING Nitrogen Organic Matter Soil Tilth To supply enough nitrogen and organic matter and to produce good soil tilth for high crop yields, heavy crops of legumes and grass should be grown at least once every four years. On rolling land, these crops should be grown oftener to control erosion. Legumes that are well inoculated with nitrogen-fixing bacteria are the farmers' nitrogen-fertilizer factory. The clover plant at the right has been well inoculated, as shown by the nodules on the roots. (Some of the nodules have been circled.) Heavy crops of legumes such as red clover, alfalfa, and sweet clover will manufacture from 125 to 225 pounds of nitrogen to the acre. This is as much nitrogen as in 400 to 700 pounds of ammonium nitrate. Both grasses and legumes increase organic matter and improve soil tilth. A soil in good tilth is loose and mellow. Improved tilth means better drainage and air conditioning for the soil. It also means greater water storage capacity in the soil reservoir. This will give crops extra moisture during dry spells. Good soil tilth is as necessary as plant food in pro ducing high crop yields. Treat Soil for Better Legum,es The value of the legume-grass crop in improving soil and controlling erosion depends on the amount of top and root growth. This in turn depends mainly on the amounts of lime, phosphate, and potash in the soil. Some soils need only lime. Other soils need both lime and phosphate. Still others need lime, phosphate, and potash. For heavy crops and maximum fertility, have the soil tested and apply the limestone and plant food needed. This clover grew on soil which originally tested low in both lime and phosphate. Clover on the left is from a plot on which lime but no phosphate was added; that on the right is from a plot which was both limed and phosphated. The phosphate-treated plot produced three times as much clover and organic matter as the one on which no phosphate was added. And the phosphated clover contained more than three times as much nitrogen. [ 5 ]

6 A Balanced Legume-Grass Program Pays Off... EROSI'ON CONTROL Better Soil Tilth sample as through the sample from the culti vated field. When more rainfall soaks into the soil there is less to run off and carry away the soil. As you know, soil plowed out of sod is crumbly and easy to work. It has good tilth. The soil sample at the right in the picture is from a fence row. Half of it is made up of desirable crumb-size particles. The soil at the left is from hard-farmed land. This soil is more compact and weighs a fourth more per cubic foot than the fence-row sample. Only 8 percent of it is in crumb-size particles. In the same length of time fourteen times as much water drained through the fence-row soil Better Soil Cover At Dixon Springs Experiment Station cultivated land with a 9-percent slope lost 240 times as much soil as did legume-grass pasture with the same slope. In one year's time over a fourth of the total rainfall and 24 tons of soil an acre were washed away from cultivated land in corn followed by winter wheat. From treated pasture, moderately grazed, one-twelfth of the rainfall ran off carrying with it only 1/10 ton of soil an acre. Good crops of legumes or legumes and grass are powerful tools in the control of erosion. The legume crop pictured here is part of a contour-strip-cropping system. (Strips of small grain and corn are shown in background). Conservation Farming Means More Profit Conservation farming meant $3.46 extra annual profit per acre for twenty McLean-county farmers. For ten years ( ) their farms were coilipared with twenty similar neighboring farms not under a conservation program. The conservation farms had more land in legumes and grasses and less in corn and soybeans. They had higher crop yields, produced more and better-quality hay and pasture, fed more livestock, and made larger net farm incomes. The $3.46 extra income an acre from conservation farming means $553 additional income a year on a 160-acre farm or $5,530 for the ten years. Twenty conservation farms in McLean county made an average annual net profit of $li.54 an acre over a ten-year period, whereas twenty non-conservation farms made only $ The net gain for conservation farming was $3.46 an acre. [ 6 ]

7 A Balanced Legume-Grass Program Pays Off... DAIRY PRODUCTION Anton Berning of Jo Daviess county grossed $ per acre on 13 acres of alfalfa-brome pasture during the 1948 pasture season. The 13 acres provided forage for 23 Holstein cows for 11 weeks. During this time, $3,020 worth of milk was sold. The cost of grain fed during the period was $183.12, leaving $2, gross returns above grain cost to be credited to the pasture. Before seeding, Berning applied limestone, phosphate, and potash according to needs shown by soil tests. A 19-acre legume-grass pasture returned $2,864 on the Robert Stiff farm during a 156-day period in 1948 (April 28 to October 1 ). In that time 16 Jersey cows produced $3,355 worth of milk. (Only five of the cows milked all during the pasture season. Eleven had a dry period. ) Grain was fed throughout the season and hay was fed during September. Total cost of grain and hay was $491. Before seeding, the soil was tested, and limestone and phosphate were applied. The field was also manured. The pasture mixture of 1'2 pound Ladino clover, 2 pounds redtop, 21'2 pounds timothy, 5 pounds lespedeza, and 6 pounds sweet clover per acre was seeded in wheat in March, Results obtained appear even more striking in light of the fact that the soil type is Cisne silt loam, which has a productivity rating of only 9 and a pasture rating of C for unimproved land (1 and A are highest and 10 and C are lowest). HERE IS SOME MORE EVIDENCE 1. Young rapidly growing pasture plants have a 74 percent of the net profit was made from May high content of protein, minerals, and vitamins. Ills through September. common to dairy herds during winter disappear soon 4. Good-quality legume hay at prices common in after cows are turned on pasture. the spring of 1949 compares favorably with other 2. High-yielding pastures mean lower feed costs. feeds as an economical source of protein and total The U. S. Department of Agriculture found that in digestible nutrients, as the following table shows: seven major dairy areas cows obtained nearly one Total cost of third of their total nutrients for the year from pasture, Feed Price 1 lb. 100 lb. total at one-seventh of the total feed cost. protein digestible nutrients 3. Dairy herds earn greatest profits while on pas Alfalfa hay.... $30.00 ton $.10 $3.00 Corn bu ture. A study that was made a few years ago of the Oats bu Illinois portion of the Chicago milkshed showed that Soybean meal ton [ 7 ]

8 1--'" A Balanced Legume-Grass Program Pays O ff... BEEF PRODUCTION...~=-'" ~ This lo-acre bromegrass-ladino pasture at the University livestock farm produced 470 pounds of beef per acre in Two-year-old steers pastured from April 15 to September 20 made gains of 351 pounds an acre, averaging 2 pounds per head per day. Yearling cattle pastured for 26 days in the fall made gains of 119 pounds an acre. Lorin Clark of Champaign county has increased corn yields from 65 bushels an acre to 100 bushels by combining cattle feeding with a good grain-farming program. He uses a fouryear rotation of corn, corn, oats, and rotation pasture. The pasture seeding includes sweet clover, red clover, alfalfa, and timothy. Pastures are manured heavily before being plowed for corn. Every fall Clark buys about one yearling for each acre he will have in pasture the following spring. Until winter he grazes the yearlings on available pastures and new pasture seedings. He winters them on corn silage and hay, and turns them out in the spring. In midsummer he starts feeding for the fall market. No cattle are given a long feed of corn. Most of the gains come from pasture, hay, and corn silage. At Dixon Springs Experiment Station in southern Illinois most of the land is hilly and subj~ct to serious erosion. It is adapted only to the production of livestock. Unimproved pastures in this area produce very little gain except in late summer anct fall when lespedeza may be available. This 20-acre grass-legume pasture (right ) was one of the best ever produced there. It was seeded to sweet clover, red clover, alfalfa, Ladino clover, lespedeza, redtop, and timothy in the spring of 1947 with oats as a nurse crop. In 1948 it was pastured continuously from late April to early August with steers and from late April until December 1 with sheep. Cattle gains were pounds an acre and sheep and lamb gains pounds an acre, for a total of 314 pounds. This was a remarkable gain from a pasture the first year after seeding, especially since numbers of livestock were controlled to prevent overgrazing. [ 8 ]

9 A Balanced Legume-Grass Program Pays Off SWINE AND S EEP Fattening hogs on pasture cuts down feed costs. In each of five trials at the University of Illinois and at Michigan State College one group of pigs was fed in drylot and another on good legume pasture. For each hundred pounds of gain on pasture, feed savings were 18 pounds of corn, 30 pounds of protein supplement, and 1 pound of mineral. With corn at $1.12 a bushel and protein supplement at $5.00 a hundred pounds, these savings amounted to $1.86 per hundred pounds of gain. At this rate, if a pasture carries 20 pigs an acre and each pig gains 175 pounds, feed saved would be worth $65 an acre. Clean rotation pastures improve sanitation and reduce death losses. Also legume pastures used for swine will usually yield at least a ton of hay an acre, especially if the chief legume is alfalfa. Yearling wethers and lambs made gains of 361 pounds an acre in 1948 on a grass-legume pas ture on the farm of J. S. Webb and son, Ewing, Illinois. The 50-acre pasture also carried six cows with calves and furnished 167 days of pasture for 125 breeding ewes and 45 days of pasture for 25 yearling heifers. Produced on land with adequate soil treatment over a period of years, the pasture was eeded in February, 1947, with wheat as a nurse crop. The seeding was 4Yz pounds timothy, 5 pounds lespedeza, 5 pounds sweet clover, and Yz pound Ladino clover. By April 1, 1948, the Ladino was predominant. At that time 125 ewes and 125 lambs were turned on the pasture. Later 169 head of 70-pound yearling wethers and 372 head of 70-pound lambs were added, making a total of 791 sheep by July 28. The 125 ewes were removed on August 1, and the yearling wethers and lambs were sold as they reached 90 pounds in weight. On November 1, 200 head of 85-pound lambs which remained were moved to a Balbo rye pasture for finishing, and 125 ewes and 25 yearling heifers were placed on the pasture, remaining there until December 15. The pasture was good in the spring of 1949 and was stocked with 290 yearling wethers. The Webbs reported intentions of adding a doubledeck of feeder lambs.

10 'A DAIRY-FARM:_ PLAN ditch the land here is not well adapted to cropping. Like the rest of the farm, this perma nent pasture has been improved by testing the soil and applying the limestone, phosphate, and potash needed. If this farm with its 5-percent slope were on a soil more likely to erode, contour farming, strip cropping, or terracing would be needed to f keep the soil from washing away. Or the land might be left down in legumes and grass more of the time. A five-year rotation of corn, oats, legume-grass, legume-grass, and legume-grass would be good. This drawing shows a balanced legume-grass plan that has been worked out for a dairy farm on a good type of soil. The cropland is rolling, most of it having a slope of about 5 percent. Fields l~ 2~ 3~ and 4 are in a rotation of corn, oats, legume-grass, and legume-grass. ;Each field is 40 acres. The legume-grass is alfalfa-brome. H ay and silage are cut from the first-year field (3), while the second-year field (4) is divided into three pasture fields for rotation grazing. Field 5 is a permanent pasture seeded to a legume and grass. Because of slope and an open [ 10 ]

11 A LIVESTOCK- FARM PLAN The slope of the cropland on this livestock, (4) is cut for hay and silage. The second-year farm ranges from almost level to about 3 percent. field (5) is used for rotation grazing. Fields 1 to 5 are 40-acre fields in a five-year Field 6 is an improved permanent pasture. rotation of corn, corn, oats, legume-grass, and It is left down in legume-grass pasture because legume-grass. The first-year legume-grass field erosion is too serious under cropping. A PLAN FOR YOUR FARM Neither of these plans may come anywhere gestions for deciding on a plan for your farm. ear fitting your farm. No two farms will have Whatever plan you decide on, one of the first exactly the same plan for a balanced legume steps is to have the soil of your farm tested grass program. Each plan must fit the land and and mapped. Your county soil-testing laborathe livestock enterprise. On level land, for ex tory can do this testing. The tests tell how much ample, a four-year rotation of corn, soybeans, limestone, phosphate, and potash are needed to oats, and legumes might be most suitable. produce high yields of legumes and grasses as On the back of this circular are some sug- well as of other crops. [ 11 ]

12 CONSIDER THESE POINTS: In working out a balanced legume-grass program for your farm, ask yourself these questions. They cover points that you will need to consider. 1. Because of the danger of erosion or for some other reason, how much of my land should be kept in timber? permanent legume-grass pasture or 2. How much of the time should the rest of my land be in legume-grass to build up and maintain fer tility and to control erosion? 3. How many acres of legume-grass will I need for rotation pasture, hay, and possibly silage to take care of my livestock-feeding program? 4. Will I need rye for fall, winter, and spring pas ture, and if so, how many acres will I need? 5. Do I need Sudan grass for summer pasture, and if so, how many acres? 6. What soil-treatment program should I follow to get good stands of legumes and grasses? If you can't figure out the answers to all these ques tions, you probably will want to get some more infor mation. You can talk the problem over with your county farm adviser, the county soil consery-ation technician, or with a neighboring farmer who has worked out a pro gram for his farm. ~~~x, C ooperative Extension Work in Agriculture and H om e Economics: University of Illinois, College of Agriculture, and the United Sta tes D epartment of Agriculture cooperating. H. P. R USK, D irector. Acts a pproved by Congress May 8 and June 30, (Urba na, Illinois, O ctober, 1949) 50M- 1O