FEEDING OF SILAGE 165 



allowed to come in contact with the silage for 

 reasonably short periods. 



The amount of silage to feed 



The quantity of silage to feed should be regu- 

 lated to some extent by the kind of silage and the 

 size of the animals. It should never serve as the 

 exclusive food, but mainly to supply carbohydrate 

 roughage. From thirty to thirty -five pounds per 

 day, containing say 28 to 30 per cent of dry 

 matter, are sufficient for an animal of 1,000 

 pounds live weight. The feeding of silage should 

 be accompanied, of course, by the use of the 

 proper fine or concentrated feeds, and preferably 

 with a little dry material, as cut corn-stalks or 

 hay. When fed in this way, the results are alto- 

 gether good. 



There have been no genuine investigations 

 showing that silage causes any injury, when 

 properly fed, or is in any way deleterious to 

 the health of the animals, or unfavorably affects 

 milk, butter or cheese. On the contrary, the 

 health of animals in winter is usually better under 

 the use of the succulent food, and the returns per 

 unit of dry matter for silage used in the dairy, 

 compared with the dry fodder corn, are about 12 

 per cent greater. These results have been secured 

 in actual experiments to determine the relative 



