Rye and Alfalfa in Spring

     Rye and alfalfa are two plants grown abundantly in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland because of their great value to farmers.  Each plant feeds livestock, helps enrich and contain the soil and is valuable to certain species of adaptable wildlife living in cropland.  And each species of plant begins to grow rapidly, and is beautifully lush green, when the weather warms in April.
     These species of vegetation have much in common.  They are both originally from Europe where they had been grown for centuries before being introduced to North America as farm crops.  Both are cut for hay several times during the warmer months to be baled and stored to feed cattle and horses in barns during winter.  Or cows and horses could graze on alfalfa and rye growing in the fields.
     Rye and alfalfa hold down the soil through the year, keeping it from washing away during heavy rains, and take nitrogen from the air and fix it in the ground, helping enrich the soil.  Or those growing plants could be plowed under and left to decay in the soil, enriching it that way, too.  Farmers call that green manure.
     Rye could be let go to grow tall and produce grain.  The grain is sold by the farmers and the stems, (straw) which turn yellow in the death of the plants, except for the seeds, is baled to be used for animal bedding in the barns. 
     Rye and alfalfa have values to certain kinds of wildlife.  After rye is harvested by machinery, mostly late in June and early in July, rock pigeons, mourning doves, purple grackles house sparrows, field voles and other kinds of birds and mammals eat grains of rye that were missed by the harvesters and fell to the ground.  That grain is a big source of food for those critters during summer.  Flocks of pigeons settle on the fields like handfuls of gray and white confetti tossed into the wind.  The light-brown doves generally land on the fields in pairs and small groups and "disappear" against the golden stubble.
     Alfalfa produces purple, fragrant flowers that bees, butterflies and other kinds of insects visit to sip sugary nectar.  Many alfalfa fields hum with insect activity until the alfalfa is cut for hay.  But it soon grows back and produces another batch of blossoms.
     During the warmer months, white-tailed deer, cottontail rabbits and wood chucks graze on the green shoots of rye and alfalfa, as do farm animals.  And when those plants grow tall, they provide cover for those same species of animals.   
     During winter and into early spring, Canada geese snow geese and tundra swans consume many of the green shoots of rye lying dormant, but green and alive, in the fields.  Most of the Canadas remain here to nest, but the snows and swans migrate north to the Arctic tundra to rear offspring in its endless daylight of summer.  Both species of geese and the swans are exciting to experience in the air, on the ground and in water.  They are big, fly in dramatic formations and constantly honking or otherwise vocalizing, which is food for many peoples' spirits when the experience them.
     Rye and alfalfa are green and lush, starting in April.  And, beyond their beauties, they are valuable to farmers and certain types of adaptable wildlife.  When possible, watch for rye and alfalfa fields to enjoy their beauties and intrigues.