THIRTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XII 631 



dicate that only one out of every forty farmers in the state of Iowa has 

 a silo. What about the other thirty-nine? 



It is about these other thirty-nine that we are now concerned. Not all 

 of them would be justified in buying a silo. Most of them would, and we 

 wish to point out at this time the reasons for, and against, investing in 

 a silo. In the first place we will deal with the nonsensical rumors con- 

 stantly springing up to hinder the introduction of something new. We 

 are referring to such rumors as: "Silage hurts the teeth." "Silage 

 causes tuberculosis," "Silage is hard on the digestive system." "Silage 

 is poison to horses and sheep." "Silage makes the milk of poor quality." 

 "Silage is hard on the land." 



There is not a one of these floating rumors which should hinder any 

 sensible man from building a silo. But there are some other reasons not 

 so generally discussed, which should be considered before a man decides. 

 How much, and what kind of stock have you now, and how much will you 

 have in the future? If you have less, or think that in the near future you 

 will have less than 12,000 pounds of stock to which you can feed silage, 

 we doubt very much if it will pay to put up the silo. If you have more 

 than 15,000 pounds of stock, to which silage can be fed, it almost certainly 

 will pay you to put up a silo. In figuring on a silo, remember that cattle 

 use silage better than any other class of stock. Profitable dairying with- 

 out a silo is almost impossible. For economic feeding of beef cattle, sil- 

 age is almost as necessary as for dairy cows. Repeated experiments by 

 the Iowa, Ohio, Indiana and Nebraska experiment stations have proved 

 beyond doubt that under present corn belt conditions, cheaper gains can 

 be put on beef steers with silage as part of the roughage ration than in 

 any other way. In these experiments ten pounds of silage have been 

 found to have the power of replacing about one and one-half pounds of 

 grain and two pounds of hay. Sheep, horses and hogs will eat silage, but 

 do not appreciate it so much as cattle. In the case of sheep and horses, 

 there is danger of feeding spoiled or moldy silage. Brood sows will eat 

 a little silage to advantage, but ordinarily should not be fed any large 

 amount. 



The amounts of silage ordinarily eaten daily by the different classes of 

 animals are about as follows: 



Dairy cattle, or wintering beef cows 35 lbs. 



Fattening steers .20 lbs. 



Heifers, calves and bulls 15 to 25 lbs. 



Ewes 2 to 4 lbs. 



Fattening lambs 1 lb. 



Horses 5 to 10 lbs. 



We give these figures so that the prespective builder of a silo may de- 

 termine whether or not he has enough stock on the place to justify the in- 

 vestment. Suppose he finds that he has enough stock to consume an aver- 

 age of 1,000 pounds daily during the six winter months. This is the equiv- 

 alent of about ninety tons, which would necessitate the erection of a silo 

 fourteen feet wide by thirty feet high. In considering the size, he must be 

 very careful not to build a silo too wide. Hundreds of farmers make this 

 mistake, and find that it is impossible to feed off fast enough to prevent 



