The Sidney herald., 1958-10-08
I,aveAlng with the
COUNTY AGENTS
By Dean Davidson and Harley ". Roath = County Agents

much as possible before hay has
to be fed. Unless a lot of shrub
plants, such as winter fat, salt
and silver sage are present on the
range, ii will no doubt pay to feed
a vitamin A fortified protein pei
let at the rate of about / pound
per day to mature breeding stock.
The feeding of a phosphorus sup
plement and salt, of course, is a
must under range conditions.
For further information on this
subject, we suggest Extension Ser
vice Bulletin 284, entitled Win
tering Montana Cattle" avail
able at the Extension Service Of
flee.
WINTERING SHEEP
In wintering sheep, we must
make the same considerations as
with cattle except that due to
their %foraging habits, sheep are
not as likely to be deficient in
certain nutrients as cattle. Sheep
also have the ability to store
phosphorus and vitamin A up
from summer feed for winter
time use much better than cattle.
Also, sheep are much better shrub
and browse eaters than cattle and
these plants, of course, are much
better in phosphorus, vitamin A.
and protein content than grass
during the fall and winter months.
When wintering sheep on hay or
straight grass range, protein needs
should, Of course, be watched
closely. Mature ewes will require
four to five pounds of dry rough
age per day.
FALL WEED CONTROL
We have had a number of in
quiries of late as to whether it is
still possible to spray morning
glory and other weeds this fall.
Fall spraying, even late fall
spraying, has been showing con-
siderable promise in the trials
conducted by state weed research
men. Heavy applications are
needed, and you must have some
plant showing to locate the spots,
but results have been good.
The recommended application
of 2,4-D on bindweed and norm
ing glory is two pounds of ac-
tual 2,4-D per acre. You can
readily see that this application
is many times the amount used
for summer spraying, but one
could confine spraying operations
to the areas with noxious weeds
on them. Spraying conducted in
this county last fall worked out
very well for control of these
weeds.
Some Enthusiastically high amounts
are being used now for fall con-
troll on some of the tougher nox-
ious weeds. For example, white
top fall applications run 3 to 40
pounds per acre; leafy spurge, 80
pounds, and for Russian KNAPP
weed, 80 to 40 pounds of actual
2,4-D acid per acre. These appli-
cations have been made with
considerable success up to freeze
up time in the fall.
FALL TILLAGE
Is fall tillage worthwhile on
land that is to be fallowed the
following summer? This is a
question that bops up quite often,
so here are some facts from ex-
periments made at Froid - a
wheat area - and at the
Central Montana Branch Station
at Moccasin - a winter wheat
area.
One of the reasons given for
fall tillage is that it puts the land
in better shape to absorb moisture
during the winter. However, in
these tests fall tillage was of no
benefit in increasing the supply
of moisture in the soil at seed
ing time.
Yield differences with spring
and winter wheat on fall titled
we're of minor consequence,
and fall tillage did not alter
protein content or test weight of
wheat.
AS far as erosion control is
concerned, fall tillage was of very
little significance.
Weed control is another reason
often given for fall tillage, but in
fbaca factc there WAS M l