648 Report of the First Assistant of the 



not be fed in lai'ge quantities, especially in cold weather, and 

 silage containing much acid should not be fed at all. Some ex- 

 perienced feeders have successfully used it for horses and lanles; 

 others, after unsatisfactory experience, have considered it an un- 

 safe food. 



Silage is a desirable and well received addition to poultry 

 rations in winter. Compared to the amount consumed by other 

 stock it is a trifling total that would be eaten by an ordinary 

 flock during the season. 



Silage is eaten in modepatiou by pigs. In feeding trials made 

 at this Station, corn silage could not be fed to pigs profitably in 

 quantities large enough to warrant our calling silage a suitable 

 food for them. Only very insignificant amounts of silage could 

 be fed with profit. 



Silage and Milk. 



In winter, for milch cows it has generally been customary with 

 us to feed once a day some dry fodder, preferably clover hay, and 

 silage twice with grain. A number of rations that have been fed, 

 containing silage, were mentioned in full in Bulletin No. 97. 

 Feeding of corn silage did not produce any inferior quality of 

 milk so far as chemical composition would indicate and no objec- 

 tionable flavor was noticed. If radical changes in the ration were 

 made gradually and not suddenly and no spoiled or moldy silage 

 allowed to reach the cow, it is probable there would be little com- 

 plaint of any unpleasant flavor from silage. Of course, milk 

 should not be exposed long in a stable filled with odors of silage 

 or any others objectionable. At the Kansas Experiment Station 

 the occasional taint noticed in the milk when silage was fed was 

 entirely avoided by feeding the silage immediately after milking 

 instead of before. 



Silo Construction. 



In building a silo the essential idea is to have a structure that 

 will effectually exclude air from the mass of fermenting fodder. 

 The first fermentation will not then be followed by souring and 

 deoav. 



