GRAZING LUCERNE

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1779, 6 July 1926, Page 3

GRAZING LUCERNE

The value of lucerne as a grazing crop commends itself to all stockowners. It provides acceptable green feed when other succulent fodder is scarce, or non-existent, and after a long dry spell lucerne is the first plant to grow when rain comes.

The pasturing of stock upon 'lucerne, however, is .attended by two risks — one to the plants and one to the animals.

Lucerne should not be pastured in 'the first season of its growth, and but lightly in the second, as the plants are not then sufficiently strong to withstand hard grazing and the inevitable trampling. Again, it will not stand_ continual feeding down at any time. The method, should be to put sufficient stock on to eat it down quickly/ then to move them off before the young plants have commenced to shoot The paddock should be subdivided into small lots for grazing so 'that the stock can be moved from one to the other in quick succession. Temporary fences should be erected and snifted as required. This- prevents injury to the plants and reduces the loss of feted.

Even with reasonable care the use of lucerne as a pasture will inevitably lessen the life of the plants. Lucerne fed off by stock will probably require’ to be sowh after a very short perhaps as short as four years. Whenever possible, s. cut for hay or green feed should he taken.

Bloat, or hoven, is caused, by feeding stock upon green, succulent fodder at a time when the stomach i 3 practically empty, or by giving an abuu 1ance of gas-producing food before the digestive organs of the animal have been accustomed to dealing with such material. Cattle and sheep appear to be the only domestic animals sublet to the danger. If the lucerne is wet at the time of eating, the liability to bloat is increased, and the danger is especially great ‘when the crop is in the early stages of growth.

In the drier land there is not as great danger of bloat as on rich alluvial flats, for the reason that there s not the / same abundance of succulent fodder.

Stock should! not be put on lucerne when it is wet. The danger is accentqlaltfed in humid and windy weather. If possible the animals should go on with a full stomach. They should first have their appetite appeased with grass or other suitable food. Bloating usually occurs when hungry animals are put on ' the feed and eat large quantities.

If the stock cannot be placed in the paddocks with full stomachs, they should be put on the lucerne for 20 minutes or so, and then taken off for about an hour, and put on for another 20 minutes, and the process repeated until the stock are no longer hungry. This practice is recommended whenever 'Stock are being introduced, to lucerne after other feeding. When they have become accustomed to‘the feed they can be left alone. It is then the usual practice to leave, stock continuously on the lucerne'when,once they are accustomed to it. Of course, the stock are removed from one break or plot to another, but they -are not taken off the lucern'e.