14 Farmers* Bulletin 1126.

UTILIZATION.

HAY.

Sudan grass is primarily a hay grass, its slender leafy stems making it easy to handle with the ordinary haying machinery. It yields well in most parts of the United States, and the hay is relished by cattle, horses, and sheep.

The feeding value of Sudan grass hay is practically equal to that of millet, timothy, Johnson grass, and other nonlegume roughages. This fact has been established both by chemical analyses and by practical feeding tests.4 Work stock can be wintered in good condition on Sudan grass hay without any supplementary grain ration. Farmers report that horses and mules stand plowing and other hard work in the hot summer months better when fed Sudan grass hay than when their roughage is alfalfa.

Stock cattle were maintained economically by the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station on a ration of Sudan grass hay, sorghum silage, and a small supplementary ration of linseed or cottonseed meal. In another feeding experiment, milk cows produced 97.8 per cent as much milk on Sudan grass hay as on alfalfa hay. Hundreds of farmers testify that cattle, horses, and sheep all eat Sudan grass hay with no derangement of the digestive processes and with good results when measured in gains of flesh, ability to work, or to produce milk. Experts in feeding livestock claim, however, that Sudan grass hay gives the best results only when fed in connection with other forage. It should not be used as the sole roughage in rationing any kind of farm animals.

SOILING AND SILAGE.

Sudan grass is admirably suited for use as a soiling crop, since it makes a large yield and is very palatable in the green state. By this method of feeding, a small area in the South, where the rainfall is adequate or where irrigation is possible, can be made to support a goodly number of animals. Large yields are secured under irrigation, because the growth is so rapid and the recovery from cutting so prompt.

The use of Sudan grass for silage will no doubt be limited, owing to the ease with which it can be made into hay, to the fact that there is but little waste in feeding it as hay, and to the larger silage yields of the sorghums and corn. The Oklahoma experiment station * has conducted some experiments with Sudan grass silage. A considerable number of analyses were made which showed that Sudan grass silage was about the same in chemical composition as corn silage. Sheep did not relish the silage as well as they did com silage, but they liked it equally as well as they did the silage made from grain sorghums.

Mixtures of Sudan grass with cowpeas or soybeans can be grown for silage in humid regions. Such mixtures make a bright-colored, palatable silage of high feeding value.

4 A summary of these analyses and the results of feeding tests will be found in U. S. Francis, C* K., and W. G. Friedemann. Okla. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 115, 8 p. 1917.