SILAGE FOR SHEEP. 205 



of silage produces as many pounds of gain as a ton of hay and 

 costs $3 to $4. "Weight for weight, I prefer silage, as It is more 

 palatable. With hay at current abnormal prices we would have 

 been forced out of business had silage not been available." 



Speaking of the advantages of silage, Mr. Poy says: "It saves 

 one-third of the corn that would be needed if only hay was used 

 as roughage, and obviates the use of hay entirely. The stock is 

 maintained in healthy condition; in fact, I never had a sick sheep 

 or even a lamb while feeding silage. When starting them on It, 

 care is necessary, but once accustomed to the feed, they thrive. 

 I figure at a 10-ton yield the product of an acre of silage to be 

 worth $50, and allowing $15 for cost of production we get ap- 

 proximately $35 out of an acre of corn. What the resultant 

 manure pile is worth, is open to conjecture. I will say, however, 

 that none of mine is for sale, and I could dispose of every pound 

 at $1 per ton. The principal disadvantage is the lack of finishing 

 quality and extra time needed to . get the stock in marketable 

 condition. This can be remedied by using corn or corn meal to 

 put on a hard finish and it Is our present practice. Saving one- 

 third the corn is an item not to be sneezed at in these days of 

 big feed bills and narrow margins." 



Anthony Gardner of Hutchison, Kans., one of the largest sheep 

 feeders in the state, says silos are indispensable. He has two 

 concrete silos aggregating 1,300 tons capacity and uses silage for 

 sheep exclusively. It not only increases his profits per lamb, but 

 enables him to more than double his operations. During the 

 winter of 1911-12, Mr. Gardner fattened 10,000 lambs on silage. 

 Without this feed, he states that 4,000 would have been his limit. 

 Aside from this feature the silo saved his corn crop from the hot 

 winds of 1911 and allowed him to make the best use of the kafir 

 he grew that season. Mr. Gardner's feeding operations are on $100 

 land — too high-priced for pasturage or range purposes. In the fall 

 of 1910 his silos were filled with com, and 7,500 lambs were fat- 

 tened with ensilage and grain. Corn was also the principal crop 

 In 1911, but to test out kafir, he topped oft one of the silos with 

 100 tons of it, and it proved so successful that in 1912 Ijie planted 

 80 acres to kafir and cow peas sowed together, which on account 

 of the increased bulk is about a third of what it took in acreage to 

 fill with last year's corn crop. Mr. Gardiner's silos cost about 

 $1,000 each, and their owner figures that they cut nearly a third off 



