8 



Ration, No. 5. — A Silage liation. 



Another enterprising farmer says, " I believe I can provide a suc- 

 culent food cheaper in the form of corn silage than in roots. How 

 much of it shall I feed ? I have clover hay, corn and cob meal and 

 peas. T. can buy wlieat bran, gluten feed and buckwheat middlings. 

 How shall I put them together." 



Corn silage certainly is a cheaper form of succulent food than 

 roots. It also has much more food value per ton than roots. A 

 cow will eat and relish 30-40 lbs. of good silage a day. It is not 

 usually advisable to feed silage more than once a day, unless there 

 is a large supply of silage on hand and but little hay. In such cases 

 about 30 lbs. of silage may be fed botli morning and night, and as 

 much hay as the cow will eat at noon. Our cows do well when fed 

 only twice a day : hay in the morning and silage at night. Mix the 

 grain of the ration with the silage. 



There is no advantage in grinding the corn cob when plenty of 

 coarse fodder like hay and silage is on hand. Cob should be fed 

 only when it is necessary to supply a lack of coarse food. Cob has 

 very little value itself as a food ; it merely gives bulk to the ration. 

 But since this man already has the cob ground, we will put it in his 

 ration. The feed stuffs which he has on hand are rich in fats and 

 carbohydrates, but are poor m protein, so we will buy buckwheat 

 middlings instead of gluten feed, because tliey contain more protein. 

 This ration is suggested : 



40 lbs. coru silage 



8 lbs. clover hay , 



3 lbs. corn aud cob meal. . . , 



3 lbs. ground i)eas 



2 lbs. wheat bran 



2 lbs. buckwheat middlings 



Total 



Dry matter. 



Lbs. 

 8.40 

 6.80 

 2.55 

 2.70 

 1.76 

 1.74 



23.95 



Protein. 



Lbs. 

 .360 

 .544 

 .132 

 .504 

 .244 

 .440 



2.224 



Carbo- 

 hydrates 

 and fat. 



Lbs. 

 5.160 

 3.168 

 1.995 

 1.602 

 .906 

 .912 



13.743 



We have tried to use as much of his home-grown grain as possi- 

 ble, and in doing this have made a ratio which is a little short in 



568 



