16 Concrete Silos 



One ton of clover hay occupies 400 cubic feet, while 8 

 tons of silage can be placed in the same space. The 

 clover hay contains 886 pounds of digestible nutrients, 

 while the silage contains 2,064 pounds. Thus the corn 

 silage occupying the same space as the clover hay con- 

 tains two and a half times the digestible nutrients. 



Silage as a milk producer compares very favorably 

 with the other more concentrated and more expensive 

 feeds. Being a very succulent and palatable feed, it 

 can be very aptly termed the great substitute for pas- 

 ture in the corn belt. We all look forward to the in- 

 creased milk flow when the cows iare turned to pasture 

 in the spring after having received nothing but dry 

 feed, for six months. The milk cow is a sensitive ani- 

 mal at hard work and should be nurtured on the best 

 feed possible. Silage makes possible a succulent feed 

 for winter use, spurring the appetite of the cow and 

 causing her to relish her feed in winter as well as 

 summer. 



Several years ago at the Ohio Experiment Station 

 the substitution of silage for grain in the ration proved 

 very successful. Silage was used to take the place of 

 over half the grain ration and proved to be much 

 cheaper. The silage ration produced milk for 68 cents 

 per 100 pounds and butter fat at the rate of 13 cents per 

 pound. The grain ration produced milk at $1.05 per 

 100 pounds and butter fat for 22 cents per pound. This 

 made the profit from the silage ration $5.86 per month, 

 and of the grain ration $2.46 per month. 



There is an occasional suggestion that milk from 

 silage fed cows has a disagreeable flavor. In order to 

 determine what foundation, if any, there was for this 

 belief, a series of experiments was sometime ago un- 

 dertaken by the Agricultural Experimental Station of 

 the University of Illinois. 



For the purpose of these experiments, the Univer- 

 sity dairy herd was divided into two lots, one of which 

 was fed 40 pounds of corn silage per cow per day, to- 



