120 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



does not pay to shred for outside feeding. For inside feeding I 

 believe it will pay to shred the fodder. 



Question: What do 3^on figure on silage? 



Prof. Smith : I don 't believe we are quite ready for silage. I 

 don't know how it is in Iowa. While we have made no tests, I 

 don't believe we can spend the labor and make com silage for fat- 

 tening cattle. 



Question: Have you had any experience? 



Prop. Smith : We have made no comparisons yet on silage and 

 corn-stover ; but so long as we can make good gains on shocked com 

 without shredding, I don't see why we should worry about the 

 other. I might say, though, we have also carried on for two years 

 a test, of which I have no chart here, comparing detached corn from 

 the stalk with corn fed on the stalk. I told you a while ago we 

 couldn't feed it because we couldn't get the weight. The way we 

 did that, we took the com, just as it came, weighed it and then 

 detached the ear and weighed it. In that test, we found the results 

 were practically the same. We only have two winter results, but I 

 think they go to show there is no particular advantage in taking 

 it from the stalk. I believe the better way is to let the steers take 

 off themselves; they can do it cheaper than you can hire it done. 



Question: How do you feed your corn on the stalk? 



Prop. Smith : Our practice on the farm was always, in the fall 

 months, to scatter it on the sod. During the winter feeding, where 

 tht.' cattle are confined, we have fed them in racks, built so that 

 the Cuttle can eat from both sides, with vertical slats, far enough 

 apart to put their head through. They will eat the corn off first 

 and tiien they will strip the leaves. They will not consume the 

 butts; there is little nutrient value in the butt. We always charge 

 up the whole stalk to them. These slats prevent them from pulling 

 the corn out and tramping it under foot. I believe thoroughly in 

 that method of feeding, inasmuch as the labor is scarce and high ; I 

 believe in saving all the labor we can. A man with a harvester can 

 cut six or seven acres a day. A man can put it in the barn or shock 

 at $1.18 per acre. A good man,y people will make the argument 

 that feeding shocked corn or stalks is not practicable, because of 

 the labor involved. You can put your corn in the shock just as 

 cheaply as you can put it in the crib, and you can feed it right out 

 of the shock, as the previous gentleman suggested in his talk. 



Question : You don 't think there is much feed in the stalk after 

 the leaf is stripped off? 



