JO Dec.; 1908.] Silos and Silage. 733 



Oats and maize are the principal crops that are cut for silage in 

 Victoria ; the former in the north, the latter in the southern districts. As 

 a. general farm practice harvesting an oat crop to the silo can hardly be 

 considered the most remunerative method of obtaining a return from the 

 ground cultivated. An oat crop can be harvested as either hay or grain ; 

 and, as such, if the quality is right, can always be profitably disposed of 

 if not required. A maize crop on the other hand can be most profitably 

 dealt with on a dairy farm either as green fodder or ensilage; for when 

 harvested for the grain, the dried stalk is past its best as stock food. 

 Maize is also the crop from which the greatest bulk of green fodder per 

 iicre can be harvested in Victoria ; and therein its value lies. The method 

 of storing it so that it can continue to serve the purpose of a green fodder 

 is the best for the dairy farmer. It grows, and is harvested, when most 

 other crops are past maturity, and when the pasture grass is drying up ; 

 therefore it is as green fodder, available during the summer season when 

 the natural pasturage is scanty and past its best, that maize is so valuable 

 on the dairy farm. 



Many dairymen make some portion of their oat crop into ensilage in 

 order to guard against a shortage of green fodder occurring before their 

 maize crop is matured. No doubt in some years this is absolutely neces- 

 sary ; but it need not be so if more maize had been grown the previous 

 year, and more silo accommodation provided for it. A fair maize crop 

 Avill return three times the weight of fodder per acre that can be gathered 

 from a green oat crop ; and when both are in a .similar state of maturity 

 there is little apparent difference in their feeding value. As a general 

 thing, therefore, the crop planted for ensilage making should be maize ; 

 and enough ground should be reserved from which to harvest the full silo 

 accommodation each year ; and the silo accommodation should be suflftcient 

 to hold a full year's supply of not less than 5 tons per cow. If it pays to 

 make provision for five months' ensilage supply from the heaviest yielding 

 crop, it must be equally profitable to make full provision in the same 

 way for all that is required ; and onlv sufficient oats need be grown to feed 

 the horses and act as a stand-by for young stock should the pasture fail. 

 Only in the absence of sufficient silo' accommodation therefore will it be 

 found most profitable to make oaten ensilage ; or when an exceptional 

 shortage of the previous maize crop renders it an absolute necessity. The 

 a.bundance of wild oats in the wheat growing districts and the assistance 

 the silo affords towards keeping the cereal crops clean, as well as the 

 difficulty in some seasons of growing amber cane or other summer crop 

 Avithout irrigation, explain whv the cereals are so frequently made into 

 silage in the north. 



As the exclusion of air in ensilage making is obtained by the close pack- 

 ing of the material, the chaffing of the crop before filling it intO' the silo 

 is an advantageous procedure. By giving extra care to the filling and 

 tramping down of the material good ensilage can be made from unchaffed 

 fodder ; but, as the particles of fodder in settling become more or less 

 glued together, unless it is put in in fairly short lengths, it is not handy 

 material to either get from the silo or use in stall feeding afterwards. 

 Thus, while with long stalked fodder, cutting out with a hay knife is 

 necessars-, the chaffed material can be easily raked or forked off the top ; 

 and as such is not only an easy fodder to handle but it is in handy 

 condition for mixing with chaff, bran, crushed oats, pea-meal, or in fact 

 almost anv other fodder as desired. 



The tramping or otherwise evenlv and solidlv pressing down the chaffed 

 fodder over the whole surface while the pit is being filled has been 



