Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1916-07-20
(From the Missouri Agricultural Expert
ment Station) |

(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 tnste 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 1t is improved by being made
into silage more than most other crops.
OF course, there are conditions I'M
der which sllage must be very care
fully used and others under which 1t
must not be used at oil, but 1t Is
worthy Of so much more wider use
than it has ut 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
its use under the proper clrcum-
stances. Almost every member of the
staff Is giving some attention to this
problem from Director Il. B. Mumford
to one of his younger students who
took home plans last summer from his
farm engineering courses and built a
115-ton sllo on his fathers farm. After
careful investigation Director Num-
ford finds that cattle can be wintered
very economically on ration made up
largely Of sllage.
In one experiment, ration Of corn
silage and clover hay without grain
fed to yearling cattle for 40 days re-
suited in a gain Of 200 pounds for the
feeding period of $50 days, at a total
cost of SLIGO or cost Of So cents O
pound Of gain, as compared with q
total cost of $15.75, and rs cents a
pound, when q similar lot of cattle
was fed on 6 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 wlntering or stock cattle,
the cost Of wintering Is much reduced.
Silage for Horses.
In planting corn and building silos
this year probably more farmers than
ever before are providing sllage sup
ply for horses. The old feeling that
silage was good for dairy cows only
was long ago discarded, but the horse
is perhaps the last more important ami
NAL on the farm to prove that it could
make good use Of sllage. While es-
pecial care must be taken not to use
moldy or other inferior silage or to
depend too exclusively on silage, the
recent tests of the Missouri agriculture
al experiment station and long expe-
rience Of few farmers and horsemen,
indicate that cost Of upkeep can be re-
duced and n horse kept in better con-
ditlon If from to % pounds of silage
are fed per day. OF course, the posi-
bllity Of saving depends on the condi-
lions and prices Of other feeds and
the amount to be fed depends upon the
same things and upon the size Of the
horse and the amount Of silage he will
eat. Different horses of the same size
vary on this point.
In the tests at the Missouri station,
sllage was fed as part Of the ration
during the last two winters with favor
able results, except In case Of one
three-year-old Percheron mare which
refused the sllage at first, then ate 1t
when her feed was reduced, but soon
after had to be taken out Of the ex-
pertinent because Of dlstemper and In
digestion. The horses that received
silage were more thrifty, and their
conts were In better condition, and
cost less to feed than those which
were fed exclusively nonsllage rations.
AS sllage is low in dry matter and
the horse has not sufficient digestive
capacity to live entirely on such bulky
feed, 1t Is important to remember to
USE alfalfa, cowpeas, or other legume
hay, or perhaps even q little grain
| for horses that are not ut work, while
growing horses, or horses at light
work should certainly have grain.
Spoiled sllage.
Prof. G. Fl. Eckles, hend of the dairy
department, has recently made care
tul studies OF the silage In wood. brick