North Dakota State University * Dickinson Research Extension Center
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ROUGHAGE TRIAL - 1952

The unfavorable seasonal conditions prevailing in 1952 point up the need for more work with emergency feed crops in western North Dakota. The Roughage Trial, begun at the Dickinson Experiment Station in 1951 and continued in 1952, is designed to compare the relative values of several crops when grown under dry land conditions for roughage. The limited data available from these two years trials is not sufficient basis for conclusions, and several more trials are necessary before it will be adequate. Some interesting observations on these trials briefly summarized are:

1. Corn is high yielder for both years followed by millet, oats, sorghum and sudan grass in 1951 and by millet, sorghum and sudan grass in 1952. Oats in the 1952 trial in close drilled plots was poor, but better than millet and sudan in close drilled plots. Yields of millet and sudan in cultivated rows is summarized in the following table in comparison with corn and sorghum.
2. Moisture content of the crops in the 1952 trial was considerably lower than was the case in 1951, which is undoubtedly a reflection of the droughty 1952 season, with no differences in moisture observed between hybrids and open pollinated varieties in this years trial.

The trial for 1953 will be revised to include some of the newer, better yielding sudan grass and sorghum varieties, and will be designed to permit seeding and harvest of each crop at the optimum period for each operation.

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