Grass silag* can't be beat as a dairy feed, says Paul Montavon, 

 (center) and father, Jim, (right). DeKalb County Farm Adviser 

 W. C. Mummert, (left) agrees, says mere than 300 DeKalb coun- 

 ty farmers are feeding grass silage. 



Paul, a veteran ham radio operator, says farmers should have 



Inside hobby. He has reached 60 foreign countries with his 



powerful set. Montavon has numerous interests and a master's 



degree in English from University of Wisconsin. 



Using Grass Silage in tlie Cash Grain Belt 



Montavons Find G»ws Milk Better on Grass and Fewer Acres of Grass Fill Silo 



WHEN YOU ask Paul Monta- 

 von, DeKalb, what he thinks 

 of grass silage as a feed, he 

 has a quick answer and a ready 

 proof of its value. 



"It's a wonderful feed," he tells his 

 visitors, adding, "here, taste it." And 

 it does taste good. Like sauerkraut, 

 slightly pickled. And that's just what 

 they're calling it in the dairy belt, 

 pickled grass. 



Paul and his father have had a great 

 deal of experience with this new feed. 

 They have been putting grasses into 

 their silo for 10 seasons. 'And we like 

 it better and better," they say. 



If you had your choice (and he does 

 have) between an acre of corn and an 

 acre of alfalfa for silage, which would 

 you take, Paul was asked. Alfalfa, every- 

 time, he answered. Here are his reasons. 



Paul and his father have found that 

 cows milk better on grass silage (it's 

 the next thing to grass). It takes fewer 

 acres of grass to fill a silo, and it's a 

 better feed for growing stock. 



The Montavons have a cement stave 

 silo that normally takes 13 acres of 

 corn to fill, or 20 acres of first cutting 

 of alfalfa. It actually takes fewer acres 

 of alfalfa, however, because of the 

 second and third cuttings. 



"We like to look at it this way," Jim, 

 the father, said. "We can grow 20 

 acres more of legumes, getting more 

 grass and less crop into our rotation." 

 As a member of the DeKalb county soil 



16 



By LEW REISNER 



Field Editor, lAA Record 



conservation board, Jim is serious about 

 saving his soil. 



Since the grass silage is high in pro- 

 tein, the Montavons have found that 

 dairy heifers. For feeding their high- 

 producing dairy fierd, they add grain 

 but use only half as much purchased 

 protein feed. 



The Montavons like to cut their grass 

 for silage just a little before it's mature 

 enough for hay. In practice it works 

 like this. The alfalfa is cut for silage 

 first, a few day's before it is ready for 

 hay. When the silo is filled, the alfalfa 

 is a little more mature, and is ready 

 for cutting as hay. 



They still like to use a preservative, 

 Paul said. They sprinkle 200 pounds 

 of ground corn-and-cob meal per ton of 

 grass over each load of silage as the 

 wagons are being unloaded. They have 

 never had a failure with this method. 



The hay goes in the silo two hours 

 after it is cut, soon after the leaves 

 have started to wilt. "We like to put 

 ours in a little wetter than is generally 

 recommended, when it has about 70 

 per cent moisture," Paul said. 



"We've tried several mixtures, but 

 like brome and alfalfa best. Brome 



beats timothy," he added. They seed 

 8 pounds of alfalfa and 12 of brome 

 per acre. The brome is mixed in with 

 the oats at seeding time at a rate of 

 six pounds of brome to one bushel of 

 oats. 



Paul and his father do not claim to 

 know all the answers about grass silage, 

 but they have given thought to most 

 of the questions you might ask. 



While talking about silage, Paul men- 

 tioned he thought farmers needed in- 

 door hobbies. His is radio. Paul is*a 

 "ham" and is proud that he has sewed 

 up 60 countries — from the Fiji Islands 

 to Norway. 



By sewed up he means that he has es- 

 tablished two-way contact with "hams" 

 in these many countries — almost 

 all the countries in the world. Paul's 

 barnyard is a maze of transmitting 

 wires. This leads Paul to say his most 

 rewarding crop is his 5 acres of anten- 

 nas. 



Paul and his father say that many of 

 their neighbors are switching to leg- 

 umes for silage. One neighbor has had 

 success with a temporary silo. Another 

 has tried blowing it in a pile, some- 

 thing similar to the square open-air 

 piles of pea-vine silage common in 

 Lee county. 



There is still a good deal to learn 

 about grass and legume silage. But his 

 much the Montavons know after 10 

 years of fruitful experience. It is a 

 good, safe feed, ideal for milk pro- 

 duction. 



L A. A. RECORD 



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