Middletown transcript., 1916-07-15

From the Missouri Agricultural Expert
ment Station)
Silage is to animals about what
canned vegetables, fruit and kraut are
to people. 1t helps to furnish bulk, to
save the necessity for buying more ex-
pensive feed, and to make the whole
feed taste good to the animal. 1t helps
to give the advantage of summer pas
lures during winter or during late
summer droughts. Just as canned fruit
is sometimes used even during the
summer time, some farmers use silage
even during the best grazing season
of the summer.
Corn is the principal crop used in
the silage partly because it makes
more tons Of silage per acre and partly
because it is improved by being made
into silage more than most other crops.
OF course, there are conditions un-
der which silage must be very care
fully used and others under which it
must not be used at all, but it is
worthy of so much more wider use
than it has at present that the Mis-
souri, agricultural experiment station
is spending a great deal of time and
effort to find out exactly when and
how it should be used and to secure
it's use under the proper circum-
stances. Almost every member of the
staff is giving some attention to this
problem from Director F. B. MumfOrd
to one of his younger students who
took home plans last summer from his
farm engineering courses and built
115-ton silo on his fathers farm. After
careful investigation Director Num-
ford finds that cattle can be wintered
very economically on ration made up
largely Of silage.
In one experiment, a ration of corn
silage and clover hay without grain
fed to yearling cattle for $50 days re-
suited in a gain of 200 pounds for the
feeding period of $50 days, at total
cost of SLIGO or a cost of 5.5 cents a
pound of gain, as compared with
total cost of $3.50, and 7.8 cents a
pound, when a similar lot of cattle
was fed on pounds of shelled corn
per head per day and clover hay.
These results have been confirmed
in other experiments which all point
to the conclusion that when silage con-
stitutes the major portion of the ra-
ton fed to winteFing or stock cattle,
the cost Of wintering is much reduced.
SiIaqe for Horses.
In planting corn and building silos
this year probably more farmers than |
ever before are providing silage sup
ply for horses. The old feeling that |
silage was good for dairy cows only |
was long ago discarded, but the horse |
s perhaps the last more important ami
nal on the farm to prove that it could
make good use of silage. While es-
)ecial care must be taken not to use
noldy or other inferior Silage or to
depend too exclusively on silage, the
'ecent tests of the Missouri agricultur-
Il experiment station and long expe-
'ience of a few farmers and horsemen,
Indicate that cost of upkeep can be re-
luced and horse kept in better con-
lition if from to % pounds of silage
Ire fed per day. Of course, the pOsSi-
,ility of saving depends on the condi-
ions and prices of other feeds and
he amount to be fed depends upon the
anne things and upon the size Of the
lorse and the amount Of silage he will
at. Different horses Of the same size
ary on this point.
In the tests at the Missouri station,
ilage was fed as part of the ration
uring the last two winters with favor
bic results, except in case of one
Percheron mare which
efused the silage at first, then ate it ,
7hen her feed was reduced, but soon
fter had to be taken out of the ex-
eriment because of distemper and in
igestiop. The horses that received ,
ilage were more thrifty, and their ,
oats were in better condition, and I
Ost less to feed than those which {
ere fed exclusively nonsilage ratiOnS. I
AS silage is low in dry matter and +
he horse has not sufficient digestive 6
lpacity to live entirely on such bulky
eed, it is important to remember to 6
Sc alfalfa, cowpeas, or other legume :
ay, or perhaps even a little grain (
n horses that are not at work, while !
rowing horses, or horses at light '
ork should certainly have grain. {
Spoiled SiIage. +
Prof. G. II. Eckles, head Of the dairy /
apartment, has recently made care t
Il studies Of the silage in wood, brick, b