186 HOW TO FEED SILAGE. 



accurate comparison is possible, to an increased growth 

 of only 15 pounds of live weight for each ton of silage fed. 



Corn Silage compared with fodder corn. The cost of 

 production is the same for the green fodder up to the 

 time of siloing, in case of both systems; as against the 

 expense of siloing the crop comes that of shocking, and 

 later on, placing the fodder under shelter in the field- 

 curing process; further husking, cribbing, and grinding 

 the corn, and cutting the corn stalks, since this is the 

 most economical way of handling the crop, and the only 

 way in which it can be fully utilized so as to be of as 

 great value as possible for dry fodder. Professor King 

 found the cost of placing corn in the silo to be 58.6 cents 

 per ton, on the average for five Wisconsin farms, or, add- 

 ing to this amount, interest and taxes on the silo invest- 

 ment,, and insurance and maintenance of silo per ton, 

 73.2 cents. The expense of shocking and sheltering the 

 cured fodder, and later cutting the same, will greatly 

 exceed that of siloing the crop; to obtain the full value 

 in feeding the ear corn, it must, furthermore, in most 

 cases, be ground, costing ten cents or more a bushel of 

 70 Ibs. The advantage is, therefore, decidedly with the 

 siloed fodder in economy of handling, as well as in the 

 cost of production. 



The comparative feeding value of corn silage and 

 fodder corn has been determined in a large number of 

 trials at different experiment stations. The earlier ones 

 of these experiments were made with only a couple of 

 animals each, and no reliance can, therefore, be placed 

 on the results obtained in any single experiment. In the 

 later experiments a large number of cows have been in- 

 cluded, and these have been continued for sufficiently 

 long time to show what the animals could do on each feed. 



A few experiments illustrating the value of silage as 

 a stock food may be quoted. Prof. Henry fed two lots 

 of steers on a silage experiment. One lot of four steers 

 was fed on corn silage exclusively, and another similar 



