308 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Mr. Do you use silage as a feed to produce the milk that you 



sell for infants? 



Mr. Gurler — There are a whole lot of people running away with this 

 idea that silage is not the right feed for cows. I had -some trouble on 

 that score with the second best milk firm in Chicago. One member of 

 that firni once jumped all over me because I was feeding silage. I put 

 up with it till I got tired. Finally I said to him: '1 am tired of your 

 bluffing. I will wager that you cannot tell the milk from cows fed on 

 silage. There is no difference between that and other milk unless it is 

 Jthe sweeter of the two." Pie shut up. 



There is no better feed for producing a perfectly sweet milk than 

 -silage fed properly. You must not leave it lying arouna in the stable 

 where the milk will absorb the odor from it. There are two main causes 

 for prejudice against feeding cows with silage. The greatest cause, I 

 think, probably is that the farmers have their silos too large for the 

 -amount of cattle that they are going to feed. They do not feed down 

 fast enough. They have too large a surface exposed for the number of 

 •cattle that they are feeding. You must take out a layer at a time, going 

 •over it systematically and prevent the silage from decaying. If you 

 •open it up and leave the feed exposed for a number of days, it is in the 

 :same condition that a can of fruit is in if you leave it open for a few 

 days. If your wife sets fruit before you that has been left in an opened 

 can for some time, you Ure not in good humor about it. By using about 

 two inches of silage a day, you are safe. 



Silage will freeze slightly, but I do not have any trouble with it. 

 If it freezes on to the walls a little, throw it into the pile with some other 

 silage that has not been frozen and it will make heat enough to thaw out 

 the frozen part. You do not need to consider the freezing, because it 

 does no harm. 



Mr. What should be the diameter of a silo for feeding 20 



cows ? 



Mr. Glover — Fourteen feet for feeding twenty cows 200 days. 



Mr. Gurler — Six surface feet should be exposed for each animal 

 that you are feeding. If a silo is twenty feet in diameter you have 

 practically 300 surface feet in it. Dividing that by 6 makes 50. Out of 

 a silo 20 feet in diameter you should feed 50 cows to save in all kinds 

 of weather. Probably in the winter time you could feed as low as 40 

 head of cattle from that silo all right. There is where one of the 

 greatest mistakes has been made in feeding silage ; our farmers have had 

 .too large silo? for the amount of cattle fed. 



Flavors in Milk — Another cause for projuilice against silo feeding 



