HARVESTING CORN FODDER 



81 



In a general way, the feeding value of the stalk fields 1 approxi- 

 mates from one-third to one-half the value of the cured fodder. 



Cost of Saving Stover. According to experiments by the 

 Minnesota Station 1 it costs $3.64 an acre more to harvest and shred 

 the stover than to harvest only the ears. Zintheo 2 estimated from 

 data collected that it cost from $1.18 to $1.50 per acre to harvest the 

 fodder, and about 1.6 cents per bushel more to husk the grain from 

 fodder than standing stalks, or a total cost of $2.00 per acre to secure 

 the fodder. With a yield of 1% 

 tons of stover per acre, stover I ^ v 



would cost from $1.50 to $2.50 per I / 



ton for labor, according to the 

 above figures. 



Whether it will pay to harvest 

 corn stover at the above prices will 

 depend on the cost of producing 

 other forage, as timothy, clover, or 

 sorghums. In general a ton of good 

 stover is estimated to be worth a 

 little less than one-half a ton of 

 clover or alfalfa and about three- 

 fourths of a ton of timothy. It 

 would not be desirable to replace 

 all the hay ration with corn stover, 

 but when hay is worth $10 or more 

 a ton a part of the hay ration can 

 profitably be substituted by corn 

 fodder. 



Harvesting Corn Fodder. Corn fodder is commonly har- 

 vested by hand (Fig. 30), where the acreage is 'small or the land is 

 rough. With ten acres or less to cut it would not pay to own a 

 binder, as the depreciation and interest on the binder (which costs 

 about $125) would increase the cost too much. However, one can 

 often hire a binder to do the cutting, at about the same cost as by 

 hand, with the additional advantage of having the fodder bound. 



Sled harvesters, costing from $5 to $15, are cheap and satisfac- 



30. Harvesting corn by hand. 



1 Wilson and Warburton : Field Crops, p. 85. 



U. S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Experiment Station, 173, 46. 



