388 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



would clean up, the amount of the other feeds being kept the same for 

 the two lots. The cows took to the corn stover silage quite readily but 

 consumed five pounds less a head daily, showing that it was somewhat 

 less palatable than normal corn silage. The corn stover silage contained 

 73 per ct. of water, which is about the same amount as average normal 

 corn silage. 



When fed corn stover silage, the cows gave an average yield of 24.5 Ibs. 

 milk and 0.98 Ib. butter fat daily. On normal corn silage they yielded 

 27.4 Ibs. milk and 1.05 Ibs. butter fat. Taking into consideration the 

 reduced yield on corn stover silage, and the consequent larger amount of 

 the other feeds in the ration required per 100 Ibs. of milk produced, it 

 was worth 61 per ct. as much per ton as the normal corn silage in this 

 trial. Unless corn stover silage is of excellent quality, its value would 

 be even lower than was secured in this trial. 



As has been pointed out elsewhere, there is no advantage, compared 

 with ensiling the entire corn plant, in removing the ears before ensiling 

 corn fodder; then curing the ears and feeding the grain later with the 

 stover silage. (301, 781) 



633. Silage from the sorghums. Next in value to corn silage is that 

 from the grain and the sweet sorghums. Reed and Fitch found kafir 

 silage practically equal to corn silage when fed with hay and grain in a 

 trial at the Kansas Station. 106 In each of 2 trials the cows produced 3 

 per ct. more milk and 1 per ct. more fat when fed corn silage than when 

 fed silage from sweet sorghum, showing this silage to be but little in- 

 ferior to that from the corn plant. (309) Thruout a large part of the 

 southern plains states, sorghum silage is a much more economical feed 

 than corn silage, for the yield per acre is materially larger. 



634. Silage from the legumes. Tho there is far less certainty of secur- 

 ing silage of good quality from clover or alfalfa than from corn and the 

 sorghums, these legumes are sometimes ensiled, especially when the 

 weather does not permit making them into satisfactory hay. (342, 348) 

 In each of 3 years Clark ensiled red clover at the Montana Station 107 and 

 fed the silage to dairy cows in comparison with clover hay. When from 

 32 to 43 Ibs. of clover silage was fed per head daily with clover and tim- 

 othy hay and concentrates, 233 Ibs. of the silage proved equal to 100 Ibs. 

 of good clover hay. On the silage ration the yield of milk was increased 

 5.7 per ct. and of fat 4.3 per ct. Clark reports that the cows relished 

 the silage during the winter months, but that in summer it became 

 darker in color and acquired a strong odor, a point also observed by 

 Reed at the Kansas Station 108 with alfalfa silage. Such combinations as 

 field peas with oats, soybeans or cowpeas with corn or the sorghums, and 

 vetch with oats, wheat, or barley, make satisfactory silage. 



Pea vines from which the green peas have been removed for the can- 

 ning factory make a highly nutritious silage for dairy cattle, and one 

 which is widely used by farmers raising peas for canning purposes. 



106 Kan. Cir. 28. 107 Mont. Bui. 94. 108 Hoard's Dairyman, 47, 1914, p. 889. 



