SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 767 



in our neighborhood during the winter of 1903-4. A and B bought to- 

 gether a car load of Texas calves about Noveonber 1, 1903 and divided 

 them by picking turn about. A put his on a ration of corn silage and 

 clover hay giving all they would eat of each. B fed his all the fodder 

 and clover hay which they would eat and in addition fed shelled corn, 

 the amount not being accurately measured, but supposed to be 3 to 4 

 pounds per head per day. Each bunch of calves had open sheds and 

 good bedding. May 1st, following A's calves had gained 300 pounds and 

 then weighed 650 pounds, while B"s had gained only 150 pounds and 

 weighed 500 pounds. We are now feeding 1,000 Texas bred Hereford 

 calves on all the corn and soy bean silage, clover, alfalfa, and oat hay 

 which they will eat, and 2 pounds per head per day of cotton seed meal, 

 and they are in fine condition and gaining rapidly. We have never seen 

 so thrifty a lot of youngsters. 



Fourth — The silo enables one to store a large amount of feed in a 

 small space at the point where needed. We put last fall about 225 acres 

 of heavy crops of corn and soy beans in one silo. One man can do the 

 work of feeding four times as manj^ cattle out of a silo as he could if he 

 had to haul the shock corn from the field. 



Fifth — The manure from the cattle is more easily handled and can be 

 hauled out during the winter as made, at which time it has much more 

 value than when left in the lot to ferment, bleach out, and wash away 

 until the following summer. 



&ixth — When the corn is put in the silo the fields are cleared so that 

 fall seeding of small grains can be much more adventagjeously done. 



Seven — Silage can be kept over for summer feeding to help out short 

 or dry pastures. After August 1st, and often after July 1st, cattle will 

 eat large amounts of silage even though running on what appears to be 

 pretty good grass. Silage and cotton seed meal fed on the grass make 

 gains rapidly. 



But it must not be supposed that there are no disadvantages attend- 

 ing the feeding of silage to beef cattle. 



First — It is expensi^-e to build silos to hold any considerable portion 

 of the corn crop on the farm of the ordinary cattle feeder, although 1 

 cam see no way in which storage room for an equal amount of feed can 

 be provided so cheaply; but 'the average cattle feeder does not want 

 storage room — the fields are his storehouses. In my judgment, the oheap- 

 est as well as the best silo is one made of concrete. A silo holding 50u 

 tons, or upwards^ if material is reasonably available, can be btilt at a 

 cost not exceeding 50 cents per ton capacitj--, and it will be practically 

 indestructible. 



Second— gilage, being a succulent, cooling food, it is necessary to have 

 good barns and sheds in order to successfully use it for beef-making pur- 

 poses. These are expensive. Cattle full fed on shock, corn, if they have 

 a good bed and are out of the mud, appear to do about as well with a 

 barbed wire fence for a windbreak as in a warm shed or barn. In fact, 

 our trouble when we were using that kind of feed was to get the cattle 

 to go in the barns and sheds at all. They appeared to prefer the open 

 air excepting the very severest weather. The corn nine out of ten 



