Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1909-02-03
THE sIlo.

The following paper on THE Silo'
was read.by G. s. Lister at the re
cent farmers Institute held in thi.
), city.
j The advantage of the silo, will
! try and give from what can gather
from the experience of others ant
ny own.
1 find the silo in this section Of
the country is fast growing in favor
/ A few years ago if you would speak
to farmer about silo and he would
tell you that it cost too much and
was to hard work to fill them, but
some of them have put in silos and
others are getting interested.
There are so many arguments in
favor of them and SO few against
them. l wonder why more; have not
\ got them but the past two years has
made great strides in that direction.
l think corn is the crop to put in
1 the silo as you can raise so much
more of 1t to the acre than other
crops. In regard to the ground, take
a piece of pasture or sod top, dress
il, make it as rich as you can, pillow
it and make good seed bed. Use
common field corn of the early var
tiles, drill 1t in not to thick SO the
corn will have chance to grow large
and tall with good ears and well ma
tured when put in the silo.
| l filled rs ton silo last season
from 51s acres with good rich feed
and have heard of persons getting
80 tons from one acre.
What crop is there you could raise
on the farm cared for in the usual
way that would return you one quar-
:, ter the feed for the amount of ground
quality taken into consideration.
The shrinkage of hay, corn and
other grains cured i'll the fields is
from % to so per cent. and corn cut
and put in the silo shrinks only 5 to
10 per cent. 1t shows great econ
omy in favor of the silo as it takes
less than one-half the room for the
same amount of ensilage as it does
for hay and dry feeds.
think taking all things into con-
sideration the round stove silo is the
best for the farmer to use
One has said when the green stalks
are put in the silo they are worth as
much for feed as the corn. Another
writer says the green stalk without
the corn is worth $500 net per acre
after the expense of putting in the
silo. When they are left in the
field are not worth over $1.0O per
acre.
v. A. Hooper, professor of Dairy
Husbandry, of Arkansas, says: the
silo is not only valutble but neces-
sary adjunct to the dairy farm.
Prof w. j. Kennedy. of the Iowa
Agricultural college at Ames, said at
the Institute held here 8 years ago:
and l will try to quote his words. If
you want to make money dairying,
you must put in silo. With the silo
can produce milk cheaper during
the winter months than in summer
with pasture and milk is usually 40
to so per cent. higher"
1t is not only valuable feed for COW
but a cheap feed for steers, young
stock and sheep.
rl,. 1Ono Nfi,co,,r; p,,lIat;,, of or,;
culture says: The silo in America
will be as common as the COW stable.
1 am satisfied beyond doubt farm
of 12O acres with silo will give a
net income equal to 160 acres with
out silo.
If any ensilage is left after the
cattle are turned out to pasture. It'll
can be kept until the later part of
pasture season and if the dry weather
makes the pasture short it is much
better feed and less work to feed it
than to go out in the field and cut
green corn to feed the stock.
Prof. Kennedy says: When bran
sells for $1,000 per ton, timothy hay
is worth only $2.5S a ton to produce
milk, although bran is higher than
that now. You can buy protein I'M
cotton seed meal almost as cheap as
that at the present time, or If you
have good clover hay, think that
will answer
Ensilage is rich in carbonhydrates
so you want to feed small quantity
Of protein fed with it for balanced
ration for milk. It has been said
that condensed milk factories would
not take milk from COWS fed ensilage,
but as far as can find out it is not
the case when theensilage is good
l will read one letter in support of
it.
Perry, Iowa, Jan. 4, 1909.
Mr.. Geo. S. Lister,
Manchester, Iowa.
Dear Sir:
In reply to your inquiry in regard
to. feeding cows ensilage and selling
the milk to the condensery will say
that it can be done. There is no
more odor from that milk than from
any milk made by feeding pure feed
of any kind.
1t is a new experience to me to
feed ensilage as just built my silo
last fall and have been feeding out
of it four or five weeks but am well
pleased with results. The only way
they tell me to spoil the milk by the
feed is to feed spoiled ensilage or to
milk and leave it where it will absorb
the odor. The manager at our con-
densery told me he would like every
natrnn to build a Siln