The Winslow mail., 1921-03-04

on many OF the dry lands of eastern
Colorado.
Mammoth Russian Variety Used
The variety of sunflowers grown
for silage is known as the Mammoth
Russian. This is a single-stocked
variety having huge heads, these
heads often measuring IL to Is
inches, and sometimes 20 inches, in
diameter Ordinarily there is but
one flower head to each stalk, al
though occasionally plant is
branched and has three or. more
heads. This is the sunflower COM
monty grown in gardens for .orna-
mental purposes or for the seed,
which is fed to poultry
Yield
On good soil, under irrigation,
sunfowers very frequently produce
over 20 tons of silage per acre. Yields
Of from % to 80 tons per acre are
reported from the Montana Station.
This tonnage is considerably larger
than that secured from corn grown
under the same conditions. ! Very
good corn silage seldom makes over
Is tons per acre, while normally the
yield will run from 10 to IL tons per
acre. The Nevada Station reports
% tons of sunfower silage per acre
yielded about IA tons. The reclama
ton Experiment Farm, Scottsbluff,
Nebraska, in 1917 secured 22.93 tons
their highest yield of corn silage was
1890 tons. On dry land sunfowers
have yielded from to 8.5 tons of
silage per acre. These are very
satisfactory returns on dry land.
is PALATABLE
Sunfower silage is very palatable.
Cattle and sheep, relish it. Practi-
cally every feeder says that stock
will eat it as readily as they do corn
silage Sometimes, in changing from
corn silage to sunflower silage, 1t
takes a few days for stock to become
accustomed to it, but they soon learn
to like it., One farmer in western
Colorado expressed the opinion that
sunfower silage is not quite as pala-
table as corn silage. Nevertheless,
his sheep arc eating it very readily
and cleaned up every bit given them
Feeding Value
| In feeding value sunf1ower silage
ranks high One dairyman in west
ern Colorado who has fed this silage
for four seasons, reports that there
is no decrease jim milk production
when changing from corn silage to
sunfower silage. Other dairymen
bear him out in this statement The
Montana Station has fed sunfiower
silage in place of a part of the
clover hay in the ration of dairy
cows and found no reduction in milk
or butterfat production. The dairy
herd at the University of Nevada was
fed sunfower silage in connection
with alfalfa hay and rolled barley,
with excellent results.
Soil and Seed Bed
Sunfiowers do best on fertile soil
rich in humus The field in which
sunfowers are to be planted should
receive about the same preparation
as one would give it for corn. A
fine, well-firmed seed bed is essen
tial for best results. Sunf1owers
respond readily to increased fertility
due to the application of manure.
When to Sow
Sunf1oWers may be SOwn earlier
than corn. Light frosts after the
plants are up, do not injure them.
In southeastern Russia, where sun
flowers have been grown more ex-
tensively than any other, place, they
are sown just as early in the spring
as it is possible to get onto the land.
There, an early start is considered
so essentiall that sometimes the,
seed is sown in the late fall and it
then lies in the ground and is ready
to germinate in the spring just as
soon as the ground begins to warm
up. The earlier the seeding the
greater the seed production and
hence, even for silage, it will be well
to plant as early as possible in the
spring so as to obtain as much of the
seed as possible. Sunfowers grown
so rapidly, however, that they are
sometimes sown very late in the
season and still make a fairly salts
factory growth for silage, a growth
much more satisfactory than corn
would make in the same length of
time. Where the corn planting, for
example, has failed to make a start
for one reason or another, sunfiowers
have been sown late in the season
July to 15l and the silage obtained
has been quite satisfactory, both from
the point of yield and of quality. OF
course the sunfiowers would not ma
ture seed when sown SO late.
Harvesting
The best time for harvesting sun
flowers for silage is matter of some
uncertainty The Montana Station
recommends cutting when one-half
to three-fourths of the seed are in
the milk stage, stating that II cut be-
fore this time the stalks are quite
watery and considerable loss will
occur. The Nevada Station recon-
mends cutting when the seed is IN
the late milk stage. Both OF these
stations have obtained excellent re
suits with dairy cows fed on silage
cut at these stages. One dairyman
in western Colorado who has fed sun
flower silage for four seasons claims,
however, that if the plants are left
standing until after the pollen falls,
resinous flavor develops in the
plant and is noticeable in milk when