The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1913-05-15
SilOs for Small Farms.

OK. F. Amy silo is a good one !;
any silo II properly used will pay for
itself the frat year. The silo is an old
thing, but has not been used in this
country very long. As / understand
1t, the silo must be air tight or the
silage will spoil. Water will not spoil
silage but whenever it gets dry H. will
begin to mould and then II will be-
spoiled. The more solid that silage il
put in the silo the better IL will keep
/ would rather have ten goats and
boy to drive them around in the silo
than to have four men to tramp th'
silage The goats feet are small ant
sharp and they will make the silaR,
solid. and that will exclude all the nj
from it. As to the size OF a silo for
man to get, most men will get one to-
small. I never saw the time that Il
one had the best feed, he could not
find someone with stock that wanted
him TO feed them. Take our country
within fifteen miles Of Alva. there have
been this winter over 700 head of cattle
shipped out as fat stock that, without
the silo. would have been shipped out
as "stockers."
l say this because there was not
enough corn raised here to fatten a
goose this last year.
l think that the corn stalks are worth
more in a silo than corn is worth. That
is, think that one can get more
pounds OF beef out of the stalks that
will grow on An acre of ground than
one can yet out Of the oorn that will
grow on one acre.
Think that. with the agitation that
there is now about silos and the high
price Of cattle and the scarcity OF cat
tie, in ten years Oklahoma will have
at least five times as many cattle as we
have now. | say this, knowing that is
more cattle than Oklahoma ever raised,
when all the land in Oklahoma was
used for grazing cattle only, and none
OF IL was in cultivation. Take II on
the best land around here (Alva) il is
easily worth 5000 an acre, some of it
cannot be bought for s75 90 per acre.
Can We grow cattle on this land and
make any interest on the investment
in the land, is the question that con-
fronts the average farmer. Most of
them have answered the question no."
as they have nearly all their pasture
broken up and in cultivation.
think that we will soon see the
farmers around here putting up sios
and will say that think that il will |
pay them. think that they will soon
feed silage to cattle the year around,
because. take our high-priced land, it !
will take at least five acres OF the land /
to keep milch COW through the sum-
mer generally il will take from 7 to IO)
but let us be conservative and say .
acres at 800 an acre. Interest at per
sent and the taxes and the repairs 10
the fence will make il cost about 81. 90
an acre and five acres makes il cost
5000 to keep COW through the sum
mer A silo will cost about three dol.
larss ton for storage capacity. The
larger the silo the smaller the cost.
That will make il cost for slage room
for COW for whole year about S2l. 90.
It will not cost over five dollars TO
raise the feed and not over one dollar
; ton to put il in the silo. That is TO
,ut the corn and board all the men and
teams and pay the wages of the men
md teams and for the use of the en-
zine and cutter In 1911 il cost me to
Ill 200 ton silo; coal for the engine,
wine for the binders, wages for the
men, use OF an engine at 700 a day,