Feeding Dairy Cattle 



nutrients is worth as much in corn silage as in any kind of 

 food. Compared with clover hay at $24.00 per ton the value 

 of 100 pounds of total digestible nutrients in silage at $8 is 

 as $2.26 for the silage and $2.35 for the one hundred pounds 

 of total digestible nutrients in the hay. In a ton of red 

 clover hay there are 1018 pounds of total digestible nutrients. 

 It is common practice to estimate the value of silage at one- 

 third the value of hay. This price of $24.00 per ton for good 

 clover hay is relatively no higher than is $8.00 per ton for 

 corn silage. This shows how closely this practice is based 

 on the principle that the food value in it is one-third the food 

 value in the hay. However, a yield per acre to be compar- 

 able would require a yield of 31-3 tons of clover to 10 of 

 corn silage. I think it will be agreed that we get 10 tons 

 of silage per acre much oftener than we get 3 1-3 tons of good 

 clover hay. 



Average alfalfa hay yields 1032 pounds of total digestible 

 nutrients per acre and on account of its high protein content 

 and other exceptionally good qualities, coupled with the 

 fact that we can get two crops per year, the comparison 

 between corn silage and alfalfa is a very close one. Total 

 digestible nutrients are as valuable in one as in the other. 

 The best way to dispose of this comparison is to say that the 

 ideal is to have both alfalfa hay and corn silage as the source 

 of the principal feed in the ration. 



This paper is a study of the source of feeds. I think 

 enough has been said to show that with the one exception of 

 alfalfa hay the corn plant as a whole preserved as in silage 

 is the best source of feed that we have. The cost of 100 

 pounds of total digestible nutrients in corn silage, clover and 

 alfalfa hay is about one half the average cost of 100 pounds 

 of total digestible nutrients in concentrates. Therefore, one 

 can easily see the saving there is in feeding when there is a 

 good quality of roughage furnished as a source of feed with 

 which to combine a good mixture of concentrates. 



The other roughage products of the corn plant, corn 

 fodder and corn stover, are valuable in their way only when 

 one doesn't have a silo. A good Holstein breeder, however, 

 needs a silo about as badly as he needs a pure bred bull. I 

 think that most of the readers of the Would have pure bred 

 bulls. Some of them, however, do not have silos. I hope 

 those may see this article and see that a silo is as valuable 

 nearly as the bull. Corn fodder is only a makeshift crop. 

 According to the technical definition of the books corn fodder 



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