Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1900-01-24
FARMERS INSTITUTE.
James Bishops paper.

FAHMFRS' INSTITUTE.
James Bishops paper.
MIR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GEN
TLEMEN;-All can rope to do in deal
Ing with this subject is to say some
thing to call out the expression of some
ideas from others who have had more
experience than myself in feeding corr
fodder. My early boyhood was spent
In northern Ohio, where all the COLE
was cut and shocked, and after being
sufficiently cured was husked and the
stalks stored in the barn, much of il
being run through feed cutter before
being fed to stock. Land was 80 valu.
able that everything must be saved to
make the balance sheet come out right
at the end of the year.
L had never seen corn husked in
the field and thrown into wagon un
til II came to Illinois thirty-fve years
ago, and a few years later to Iowa
Here conditions were changed. The
immense grain fields, producing almost
unlimited quantities of wheat, oats and
corn, and the comparatively small
amount of stock kept, made corn
stalks and straw of comparatively little
value for feed.
Here in Delaware county thirty years
ago stock was allowed to run at large,
and the large amount of vacant land
made 1t an easy matter to get all the
wild hag one wanted for the cutting
But conditions have changed. The
land has all been taken up and placed
under cultivation. Stock is confined to
the owners premises and he must raise
the necessary grain to feed them. In
stead of raising grain to sell and ship
out OF the county, requiring as it did
at one time half dozen large elevators
In Manchester alone to handle the pro.
duct of our farms, we are buyers of
grain and our produce is shipped in the
form of live stock and dairy products.
This necessitates saving everything
that can be utilized for feed, as the
more feed we have the more stock we
can keep, which means more money in
the purse and more fertility in the soil.
Experiments have demonstrated that
corn fodder is one of the best rough
feeds that we raise, and that the stalk
contains about 80 per cent of the nutri-
tive value of the corn plant. This be-.
ing admitted the question would turn
on the extra expense of securing the
fodder, compared with the expense of
raising and securing an equal amount
of hay.
This brings US to the question under
discussions: "Does 1t pay to shred or
cut corn fodder with the present price
of hay and grainY" In the first place
L think an average acre of corn stalks
equal in feeding value to an average
acre of hay Assuming this to be the
case, we must compare the cost of sc.
curing each product, as we must put
our own labor into the balance if we
expect to succeed. The hay must be
secured in many cases when we ought
to be blowing corn, but the having
must be done, SO the corn is laid by
sooner than it would otherwise be, and
the crop is less in consequence. In sd.
ditlon we lose the value of the corn
which could be raised at the same time
we are raising the hay.
III we hire help for haying we must
pay 20 to 80 per cent more than the
same help would command at the time
of cutting and shredding corn. With
the corn binders we now have, the ever
age cost of cutting corn the past year
including Irvine was one dollar per acre.
The cash outlay for shredding will
amount to about $l.25 per acre in heavy
corn. This husks the corn in addition
to giving the amount of rough feed
equal to an acre Of heavy hay for an
outlay of 1925. But how about the
extra help required think the labor
OF ten men one day equal to the labor
OF one man ten days, or in other words
change work the same as in threshing
ANAL grain and the work is all done up
quickly, Instead of having to freeze
your fingers husking corn in the snow
and frost. In addition you have q
q chance to tone up your system with
q variety of appetizing food; have to
tell your better half what they had for
dinner and If you fail to remember she
says, "Just like man, they never know
anything."
AS far as my experience goes, COWS
will give more milk when fed on corn
fodder than on hay, and shedding does
away with the inconvenience of
handling The shredded fodder is
easily fed from the NOW or stack, and
all the refuse can be used for bedding.
There is less loss of corn when cut
up than when husked in the field, AS
more or less is shelled in husking, while
all the shelled corn is saved when it is
cut and shredded. When the ground il
frozen with bnt little snow, fodder can
be fed on the pastures with but little
loss, but in wet stormy weather much
of 1t is trodden under foot and wasted.
A writer in the January Institute
Special of the Homestead saws; "The
only real disad vantage of feeding whole
fodder is in cleaning the feed lot
Ii man is church member of
church, he should assign this task to the
hired man" Would the tempter be less
guilty than the tempted in this case?
| think not. He should either clean
the feed lot himself or get the hired
man converted, then they could help
each other, SO from moral standpoint
/ think it would be safer to have the
fodder shredded.
l would not do without grass but
would pasture more and make less hay,
using shredded fodder instead. There
by keeping more stock and the farm
will become richer instead of poorer
year by year.
Taking this view think it pays to
cut and shred corn fodder at present
price Of hay and grain.
L.G Clute, of Greeley, contributed
the following on the same subject.
L. g. clute's paper.
Does it pay to shred or cut corn fod.
der with hay and grain at present
prices? We answer most emphatically
yes, and for many reasons;
First, among which isthatit is tho best
and cheapest feed fed upon our farm.
Now know that there are many farm.
ers here that will take issue with me at
once upon this broad assertion and de.
clare that it is the very most expensive
feed they ever fed, and perhaps this
assertion is also true when you take in
to consideration their expensive way of
cutting and handling it, but l hope to
prove to my brother farmers that with
proper handling and caring, for it is q
very cheap and good feed. L will en-
deavor to as briefly as possible describe
to you the way we, for the past five
years, have handled from one to two
hundred acres Of corn fodder upon our
farms. To begin with where farmers
are SO situated, that they can do 80, is to
Oo.Onarn tfa nd t,ca ciin Gov -, ..,,.l -