Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1916-09-14
E5HRM BOYS
C0RNeR
WHY SILAGE PLEASES BOTH
CATTLE AND MEN

1t was shown last week that good
silage contains acids, and is there
fore sour. AS you read it, You prob
badly wondered, if you had not done
so before, If this acidity might not
be harmful to the animals to which
the silage was fed. 1t is certaln that
many farmers have hesitated or even
refused altogether to feed silage be-
cause of this idea. Suppose We look
into it a little.
As for yourself, do you not enjoy
lemonade, especially when the
weather is hot? Perhaps you even
like buttermilk, which is known to
be one of the most wholesome and
healthful drinks. And then you like
fruits, particularly those that are
little tart or acid, such as oranges,
Or straw berries or apples. A little
tartness likewise helps the des-
serts which you eat at the table,
as canned or dried fruits. You may
even have seeM people who crave
sour things like pickles though this
may have seemed to you to be rath-
er a queer taste.
The point is that we need some
itself is enough to indicate that the
lower animals may relish them, too.
Did you ever see a lunch of young
pigs THAI did not try to get
both feet in the trough wheri you
fill it With buttermilk? Or If you
have ever observed how greedily the
steers in the feed lot or the dairy
cows in their stalls clean up their
silage, you can easily believe that
they enjoy a little tartness in their
feed just as do human beings. In
deed, you can hardly believe any
thing else.
However, if you are close OBJ
server, you have probably noticed
other points about these animals
that are getting silage. Their coats
are glossy, their skin soft AID PHI
able, their appetites good, and their
body tissues sappy and mellow; and
you know full we'll that all these
may be taken as reliable signs that
the animals are i'm healthy, thrifty
condition. We may as we'll dismiss
the idea that the acids d. silage are
harmful to cattle AS matter OF
fact, the large majoriy of the very
best pure-bred herds i.1 the United
States receive silage in liberal
amounts.
But here is the most important
fact to remember about silage. The
l corn plant cont atns a greater amount
+, of food material that is actually di-
gestib.e when silage is made than at
any other time. At this time, prac-
l tical!y the entire plant is digesti-
9 BILE AID it is fully developed as
5 we'll After this, the sem and leaves
I gradually become brown and woody;
!. and then the cattle will not eat
g them we'll and could lot digest them
we'll if they did So that the stems
AID leaves, which are really valuable
q feed at the time when s.lage is made
u gradually become nearly worth
e less thereafter. 1t follows that there
S is a loss of just so much good feed;
e and this less amom is actually to
S about a third of the feed value of
the corn crop.
L Now, there are two or three ways
e of looking at this matter You may
y say, if YOU wish, that your feed
. costs only about two-thirds as much
when you use silage, because the
u above loss is prevented: or you
e may say that the use of silage vir-
VI tually increases the size of your
s. farm, since you get as much feed
t from it as YOU would from a third
u more land or whereabouts; or again
l. you may say that the silo simply
IS makes your business bigger, since
u you are able to feed out about {
'e third more animals from the crops
IL you raise. All of these statement,
are true; and they are certainl!
worth thinking about at a time wne
u 1t seems impossible to feed our high
e. priced crops to live stock withou
1t taking the chance of losing a 10
as of money.
ar Next week let Us consider jus
of how a silo ought to be managed t,