Gunnison news-champion., 1921-09-23
Ranch and RangG
CANADIAN TESTS FAVOR
EARLY CUTTING OF
SUNFOwERS FOR SILAGE

While the frost Of September 9Th
cut the garden patches of corn 20 the
ground, i left practically untouched
the experimental rows Of giant Rus
ian sunfOwers that were planted
here and there about the county for
a number OF years Not till the freeze
Of Wednesday morning did the sun
flowers suffer.
This again proves the general be-
lief tha, in sunf0wers We have a sil-
age crop that will mature in the alti-
tude Of Gunuizon farms. This Is
particularly 20. since the young plants
are also resistant 70 frost and can
be planted early in May. while II is
not safe TO seed corn Up here until
early IN June. Latest results in sun
flower zilage also incline 20 the belief
that contrary to the case with corn,
early cutting Of sunfiOwers will make
better silage, since the rather woody
stem has not grown so tough The
following article is from the last is
sue Of Western Farm Life
Interesting observations on the
feeding value Of sunflower silage are
made By Prof. Frank 7. Shut, chemist
on the staff Of the Dominion Expert
mental farms Of Ottawa. Canada, in
a recent publication Of the Canadian
Department Of Agriculture. Giant
-uuflOwers are not new as q feeding
crop in the northern region Of the
Continent, as will be noted by the
statement Of Prof. Shut, who says:
Probably the first trials with the
sunfower plant as forage are those re
corded in the annual reports OF the
Dominion Experimental Farms for
1882 and 1898. In these experiments
conducted at the experimental farm
in Ottawa, several new kinds of silage
were made and fed, these consisting
Of mixtures Of corn, horse beans and
the mature suufoweT heads with the
seeds. The corn and horse beans were
grown together; the sunfiowers were
planted By themselves The object
Of the work was TO produce more nut
ritious and better balanced silage
than corn silAgs, by increasing the
protein content from beans and en-.
riching il in fat from the seeds Of
the suniiower. The resulting silage
was found palatable and satisfactory
in the feeding Of dairy cattle. A saw
ing in the meal part Of the ration
was effected by using the corn-bean-
sunfower silage rs compared with
corn silage without apprcciable dif-
ference showing in either quantity or
quality Of the milk produced. No
attempt was made To use the suniiowcr
stems and leaves of the ripened
plant, a. they were considered as too
hard. woody and indigestible.
"The first experiments for utilizing
for forage, or as silagc the whole
Hmmature) sunhower plant appear TO
b.. thosa OF the Montana Experiment
Station in 1915. From four years
result at this station il Is concluded
that sunfowers make n satisfactory
and acceptable soiling and silagc crop
in districts in which the season IS too
short. the nights too cool and the
rainfall too insufficient for the best
results with corn"
To George La Grange, Grand
Junction, Colorado, jersey breeder OF
given credit for the development OF
sunhow. silage in the West. He
noticed the fondness of his calves
for sunflowers in the garden and
decided to try them for silage. He
discussed the matter with Fred w.
Merrill. then field man for the De
Laval Separator company, who TOOK
the idea to Montana farmer whose
tess had attracted the attention Of the
Montana Experiment Station, result
ing in the experiments mentioned
above.
Colorado then took the matter up
and demonstrations were made with
the crop by county agents in other
localities of the state and the reports
as published by the Extension De-
partment of Agricultural College We're
generally favorable.
The unfavorable side of the
story which has since developed, is
to the effect that silage made from
fields of mostly immature plants is
mostly washy, wasteful, hard to handle
and of doubtful feeding value as
compared with corn. Where corn can
be proftably grown to the silage
stage, that crop is to be preferred. in