The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1916-07-21

! 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 sflage partly because 1t makes
more tons of siIage 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
low 1t should be used and to secure
its 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 lone of his younger students who
took home plans last summer from his
farm engineering courses and built a
115-ton silo on his fathers farm. After
careful investigation Director Mum
ford finds that cattle can be wintered
very economically on a ration made up
largely of silage.
In one experiment, 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
pound of gain, as compared with a
total cost of S15.75, and rs cents a
when a 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-
lion fed to wintering or stock cattle, |
the cost of wintering is much reduced. |
SiIage for Horses.
In planting corn and building silos
his year probably more farmers than
ever before are providing a silage sup
,ly for horses. The old feeling that
;ilage was good for dairy cows only
vas long ago discarded, but the horse
3 perhaps the last more important ami
nal ON the farm to prove that it could l.
make good use of silage. While es-
ecial care must be taken not to use
1oldy or other inferior silage or to
epend too exclusively on silage, the |
ecent tests of the Missouri agricultur- /
| experiment station and long expe-
ience of few farmers and horsemen, ,
ldicate that cost of upkeep can be re-
uced and horse kept in better con- {
ition if from to 25 pounds of silage {
re fed per day. Of course, the posi- i
Ility of saving depends on the condi-
ons eGd prices of other feeds and L
lie amount TO be fed depends upon the q
lme things and upon the size of the h
orse and the amount of silage he will
It, Different horses of the same size
Try on this point. Il
In the tests at the Missouri station, q
10 oo Woe fad ac mart of fho ration | 81
lring the last two winters with favor b
lie results, except in case of one IL
Percheron mare which | f,
fused the silage at first, then ate it m
hen her feed was reduced, but soon O,
ter had to be taken out Of the ex- is
riment because of distemper and in 81
gestiorl. The horses that received W
age were more thrifty, and their q,
ats were in better condition, and fl
st less to feed than those which Sc
re fed exclusively nonsilage rations. FL
As silage is low in dry matter and tb
) horse has not sufficient digestive sr
tacity to live entirely on such bulky
d. 1t is important to remember to sill
, alfalfa, cowpeas, or other legume ri,
Y. or perhaps even little grain + fr
horses that are not at work, while #
wing horses, or horses at light W.
rk should certainly have grain. cit
s - : Spoiled ~eilags. M.
'rof. c. H. Eckles, head Of the dairy 10,
,artment, has recently made care tol
.sfudias u the silaee In wood, brick b,