FOOD FOR MILCH COWS IN SUMMER 25I 



ner possible, it is, in a sense, necessary to have a silo 

 built and reserved for such feeding. This is necessary 

 for the reason that the amount fed daily is small com- 

 pared with the amount fed in the winter, consequently 

 the amount taken from a silo that would be suitable for 

 a herd in winter would not take enough ensilage from 

 the silo daily to keep the ensilage in perfect condition. 

 The loss of succulence in ensilage increases with the 

 amount of surface exposed and the slowness with which 

 the food is fed out. Of course, when feeding from a 

 winter silo, a section only of the whole surface may be 

 fed down at one time, but, in such instances, more en- 

 silage is lost by decay from the exposed side than when 

 the whole surface is fed from. 



When a separate silo is built for summer feeding, 

 it should be of much less size than the silo for winter 

 feeding, as the quantity of silage to feed in summer is 

 usually much less than the same in winter. The de- 

 crease should relate to width more than to depth, for 

 reasons that will be apparent from what has been said 

 above. Where ensilage is fed, especially in northern lati- 

 tudes, as intimated previously, the winter silo may be 

 made to furnish food from, say, October i to May i. 

 During this time it will frequently be in order to give 

 the cows all that is prudent to feed of such food for a 

 prolonged period of winter feeding, and this amount 

 has been put at 40 pounds daily. (See page 266.) It 

 would follow, therefore, that the summer silo would 

 only be drawn upon during the intervening months, that 

 is, during five months. While the amount fed will vary, 

 it would probably be correct to say that not more than 

 25 pounds daily will be required for summer feeding. 

 The number of cows being known, therefore, the size or 

 the silo needed may be readily computed from the prob- 

 able yield of the corn. 



Feeding soiling food to cows in summer. — The feed- 

 ing of soiling food to cows and the methods of feecfing 



