EARLY CUTTING OF HAY

Waikato Independent, Volume XLIV, Issue 6172, 12 November 1948, Page 2

EARLY CUTTING OF HAY

HIGH PROTEIN CONTENT Investigations into tlie nutritive value of grass, as carried out at Cambridge Experimental Farm, England, and at the Plant Research Bureau at Palmerston North, point to the desirability of .cutting grass for hay ' earlier than is the usual custom in New Zealand. This early cutting gives a lighter hay crop ’which, however, is offset by the following compensation:— (a) A higher percentage of digestible protein and therefore a more nutritious hay, with less fibre. (b) A smaller amount of hay is required to satisfy maintenance requirements. (c) Less useless, indigestible material is introduced into the alimentary tract of the animal, a point of considerable importance in the case of milking cows and highproducing ewes. (d) Early cut hay of high, digestibility and nutritive value constitutes and ideal roughage for inclusion in the rations of early-maturing stock. (e) The taking of an ealier and lighter Hay crop results in an earlier and stronger growth of aftermath, before pasture growth is re duced by the usual dry period in summer.