94 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



planned. Have everything ready when the corn is right. Have the men so placed 

 as to economize time and keep everything moving systematically. 



C. C. Lillie: This steer feeding is out of my line. I do not feel that I can 

 afford to feed steers when the amount of feed required to produce a pound of beef 

 would yield a pound of butter. 



Mr. Gilbert: I can carry one-half more cattle on the same farm with the silo 

 than without. 



Q. What i5€r cent is lost by leaving the corn in the field? 



C. C. Lillie: The necessary loss in the silo is but eight to ten per cent. The losses 

 in the field run from 20 to 25 per cent. 



Q. Does it not cost less to haul in the corn in the winter than to put in the silo? 



Mr. : No. I would put in the silo every time. Silage is all ready to feed 



at any time, whether it rains or shines and whether the fields be muddy or other- 

 wise. I have seen times when it was hard work to get it from the fieid. In the 

 midst of a long thaw the wagons go in to the hub and then when it freezes the 

 corn is fast to the ground. In hard freezing weather after a thaw a man neces- 

 sarily leaves a large share of the corn in the field when he attempts to haul it to 

 the barn. 



C. C. Lillie: As to my statement comparing the food cost of beef and butter, I 

 can not say from actual experience Avith careful weighing of feed and of animals 

 that the food taken to produce a pound of beef will make a pound of butter; but I 

 have fed steers and afterwards cows in the same barn, and I am fully satisfied 

 that I can produce a pound of butter as cheaply as a pound of beef. 



C. D. Smith: It is admitted on all sides that the silo is now a veiy valuable 

 adjunct to the dairj'— almost a necessity, in fact. When it comes to steer feeding 

 the superiority of the silo over dry feeding is not so apparent or generally believed. 

 Admitting that the wastes by weather and drying out are much greater in the field 

 curing process than in the silo, the cost of manipulation, the human labor involved 

 is much less in the field curing process. There are many situations in which the 

 farmer can better afford the extra losses of cheap fodder than attempt to hire the 

 necessary help at corn cutting time. When sugar beets become a common crop it 

 will be difficult indeed to get the necessary help at the silo filling season. Let us 

 take, therefore, a conservative and common sense view of the situation and not 

 get exaggerated ideas on either side. 



A. M. Welch, Ionia Co.: I have tried both sides of this question, having on a 

 certain year forty acres of corn in the silo and forty acres outside. Here is my 

 account of the cost of an acre of corn: 



COST OP ONE ACRE OF CORN. 



Plowing $1 00 



Fitting 50 



Planting 25 



Cultivating 1 00 



Seed 20 



Total cost $2 95 



It requires 8 men and 2 teams 1 day to cut 3 acres, or $12.15 $4 05 per acre. 



Total cost in silo $7 00 



If it yields 15 tons per acre we have 4G cents as the cost of one ton of silage in 

 the silo. 



This corn Avould go certainly 100 bushels of ears per acre, or 50 bushels of shelled 

 corn. There would therefore be 2,800 pounds of corn in 15 tons. If a cow is fed 

 50 pounds of silage per day, the 15 tons would last her 750 days. Dividing the 2,800 

 pounds of corn by 750 we have 3.7 pounds of corn as the amount of grain the cow 

 receives in her silage. As a matter of fact my cows receive much less silage than 

 is here stated. 



The time to cut corn for silage is when it is fully glazed and contains the greatest 

 quantity of protein and sugar and starch. 'Slj ration is as follows: 



Gluten feed, 4 pounds. 

 Bran, 4 pounds. 

 Cornmeal, 6 pounds. 

 Cornstover, 10 pounds. 

 Silage, 30 pounds. 



