Managing the Dairy Herd 81 



feeding the dairy herd, the economy has been at once 

 evident. 



The writer has before him at the present time one 

 specific instance of this character. This is the boiled- 

 down experience of a farmer in a middle western state 

 who has tried out the silage ration system very thor- 

 oughly and has found it wonderfully profitable. This 

 man built a concrete silo sixty feet in diameter and 

 forty feet in height. This silo was filled four times 

 from ten acres of drill corn and cow peas. Some com- 

 parison of the value of this ten acres of silo corn will 

 be of interest. The 200 tons of silage thus obtained 

 was equivalent to 70 tons of timothy hay, which, at 

 $8 a ton, would be worth $560. This would make his 

 silage worth $56 an acre. At one and one-half tons 

 to the acre a large crop for the state in which this 

 test was made it would have required forty-five acres 

 to grow the hay thus secured by the silage method. 

 To figure it in another way, this ten acres of silage 

 was the nutrient equivalent of 1,420 bushels of corn. 

 These at sixty cents a bushel would be equal to the 

 value of $850, or $85 an acre. It would have required 

 thirty-five acres of ground to produce the same amount 

 at forty bushels to the acre. 



Then again, this silage crop equaled in value fifty- 

 eight tons of bran. As values are now, this would be 

 equal to $1,400, or $140 for each acre. 



And to figure it another way, these ten acres of 

 silage are equal to forty-five tons of cottonseed meal. 

 Cottonseed meal at $30 per ton would equal $1,450, 

 or a valuation of $145 an acre for the silage. 



The value of silage to the dairy farmer can hardly 

 be overestimated. Silage stores well. It will keep 



