Feeding Dairy Cattle 



Finally, not enough thought is given to the relation 

 between quality of hay and its nutritiye value. High nutritive 

 value is always found in the best cured hay. Hay making 

 as' an art or science is something more than simply getting 

 the hay dry enough to go into the barn. 



Vn. When to Cut Com for Silage 



THE determination of the proper time for cutting corn for 

 silage has passed through an interesting history. 

 When silage was first made it was thought that the 

 corn plant must be very green in order to make proper silage 

 and much of the valuable part of the crop was lost as we 

 shall see. \s silos have become more and more common the 

 corn plant has been harvested later and later, until now it is 

 the custom, and the proper one, tp wait as long as possible in 

 order to get more maturity, with increased keeping qualities. 



In order to study the subject carefully and to find out the 

 reason for the practice of waiting until the corn is as near 

 mature as possible we must study the nutrient content of the 

 corn plant at dififerent stages of maturity. 



This is best shown in a table taken from "Modern Silage 

 Methods", published by the Silver Co., Salem, Ohio: 



CHEMICAL CHANGES IN THE CORN CROP 



Tassele'l Silkefl Milk Oiazerl Ripe 



yield per acre .July ;o Aue. 9 Aue. 21 Sept. 7 Sept 2." 



lbs. lbs. lbs lbs lbs 



Gross weight 18045.0 25745.0 32600.0 32295.0 28460.0 



Water in the crop... 16426.0 22666.0 27957.0 25093.0 20542 



Dry matter 2619.0 3078.0 4643.0 7202.0 7918.0 



Ash 138.9 201.3 232.2 302.5 364.2 



Crude protein 239.8 436.S 478.7 643 9 677.8 



Fiber 514.2 872.9 1262.0 2755.9 1734 



N. F. E 653.9 1399.3 2441.3 3239.8 4827.6 



(Starch, sugar, etc.) 



Crude fat 72.2 167.8 228.9 260.0 214.3 



A careful study of this table will show some very interest- 

 ing things. The huge increase in the amount of dry matter 

 per acre comes between the milk stage and the glazing stage. 

 There is a still further increase before ripening. After the 

 glazing stage there is a change in the carbohydrates. The 

 amount of fiber per acre drops more than looo lbs. before 

 the corn is ripe, and the more soluble carbohydrates, starches 

 sugars, etc., increase more than 1500 lbs. An increase in the 

 dry matter per acre, with every day up to maturity, tells us 

 that the later we put ofif putting the corn into the silo up t 

 the time the corn is ripe, the more food per acre we are get 

 ting in our crop. All groups of nutrients except the fiber 

 show an increase with every day and the loss in fiber is more 



Page Thirty-four 



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