112 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



silage, but it is not. the only feed. We are not studying to do up the silo men, but 

 in our way we get good results. We have studied the thing out and we know we 

 make it pay. 



Q. In filling the silo do you put in the entire plant? 



Mr. Welch: Yes. 



Mr. Watkins: It occurs to me, Mr. Welch, that it makes pretty expensive feeding 

 Avhen you put the entire corn crop into the silo, and then feed the cattle tliat and 

 also add hay and grain. We feed this same corn crop, but instead of feeding the 

 nicest hay and grain, we add roughage.' 



Mr. Welch: Yes, but you must rememljer that I get 20 tons of corn fodder to the 

 acre while you only get (> tons; besides my stock has green feed and yours has dry feed. 

 Forty pounds of silage a day means only three pounds of grain. You have got to feed 

 a balanced ration, and that is why we add the other grain. I do not believe that when 

 you feed corn fodder the stock gets all of the gaxin or anywhere near all of it. I have 

 seen steers many a time trying to master an ear of corn, and while they did a good 

 job of shelling it, half of it ran out onto the ground instead of down their throats. 



Mr. Watkins: We raise two kinds of corn,.tlie Hathaway Dent for the large and the 

 Longfellow Flint for the small. We plant the latter close and get small ears purposely 

 for the smaller animals. 



Mr. Welch: I cannot afford to raise small corn. This is the kind of corn we raise in 

 Ionia county. (Showing a bunch of nice plump corn.) 



Mr. Watkins. Do your cattle eat up the fodder clean? 



Mr. Welch: No, they won't eat the butts of the stalks. I know that in silage they 

 do it, but it is because they are compelled to. not because they want to. They do the 

 same thing with shredded fodder if it is fine enough. After the cattle we let the sheep 

 have access to the racks and then the hogs follow. 



Q. What gains do you get? 



Mr. Watkins: We have gains all the way from 1% to 4^4 pounds a day. 



Mr. Raven: I do not believe the cattle eat the coarse part of the stalks merely 

 because they have to. When my cattle are given silage, they eat the ears first then the 

 joint, and the leaves last of all. 



Mr. Watkins: My observation does not agree with Mr. Raven's. 



Mr. Raven : Well, I don't want any man to go away from this meeting hanging to 

 the old notion that good silage is not good food. It is sweet and good and the cattle 

 eat it because they like it. 



Mr. Welch: I always put corn into the silo when the ear is just matured but the 

 stalk is still green and digestible. It is all good, every bit of it, and the cattle eat it 

 greedily. Now let me ask some of these fodder men how much greeri fodder a cow 

 will eat when she has had all the silage she Avants. 



Mr. A. B. Cook: I would like to ask Mr. Welch how much water a man can drink 

 after he has had all the whiskey he wants. 



Mr. Welch : I do not know. I am not an authority. Mr. Cook will have to answer 

 it himself. 



Q. ^Ir. Watkins, do* your cattle consume as nuich green fodder April 1 as they do 

 December 1, and what percentage more waste is there at the latter date? 



Mr. Watkins: There is no more waste. 



Mr. Bale: That is not my experience. My observation is that they won't eat as 

 much in March as they did in earlier winter. Either the fodder is not as good as it 

 was earlier in the winter or they get tired of it; but it doesn't seen to be this way with 

 silage. 



Mr. W^atkins: In warm weather we sprinkle with salt for appetite's sake. 



Q. Is not 120 to 12.5 bushels of corn per acre too much to put in the silo for dairy 

 cows? 



Mr. Welch: I would rather take off .50 bushels where the yield is that large. I grow 

 cane and cow peas and p\it them in the silo with the corn. This gives me nearly a bal- 

 anced ration in my silo. I have corn husking 165 bushels to the acre. I cannot afford to 

 plant small corn. I plant the rows standard width and 10 to 12 inches apart in the row. 

 I can haul corn to the silo as cheap as a man can shock it. 



Q. Do you think farms are worth more with you than they were before the silo 

 came? 



Mr. Welch: Yes, sir. 



Mr. E. E. Owen : I bought a farm a few years ago on which is a silo, but I never fill 

 the silo except with shredded fodder. I believe I am making three times as much money 



