The digestibility of bur clover as affected by exposure to sunlight and rain

Abstract does not appear. First page follows.

The principal forage plants of California foothill and valley ranges are annuals.3 They germinate with the coming of the fall rains and make, during the winter, an amount of growth that varies according to moisture and temperature conditions. From February to May is usually the period of greatest growth. When the rains cease and moisture is depleted, the forage matures and dries. Stock is then either maintained on the dry feed or moved to summer ranges in the high mountains. In the latter case, the stock is brought to the lower ranges in the early fall and subsists on the old dry feed until rains bring on new forage.

The changes in the plants from the early vegetative stage to the dried condition involve marked changes in chemical composition and nutritive value. After drying, the feed is subjected to the processes of weathering.

Studies by Woodman and others⁽¹⁾, ⁽²⁾, ⁽³⁾ on the nutritive value of pasture have shown that young pasture grass is in digestible composition a “watered concentrate” rather than a roughage. They found that 70 per cent of the organic matter was digestible and that the small amount of fiber which it contained was 80 per cent digestible. The immature grass contained approximately 20 per cent digestible protein with a nutritive ratio of about 1:3.