190 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



the summer when corn is more mature, there is nothing better 

 than green corn. No plant now known to us equals corn in its 

 adaptability to the soiling system. Corn has the advantage of 

 yielding larger quantity of digestible nutrients per acre at less 

 cost than any other crop suited to soiling. Where alfalfa is not 

 grown, the use of the corn silage for summer feeding is bound to 

 be practiced extensively in the future. We are coming to depend 

 more and more upon silage as a supplementary to pastures 

 throughout the season. The use of silage for this purpose allows 

 the corn to be mature to the proper stage before being harvested, 

 giving a maximum yield of nutrients per acre and is more econ- 

 omical of labor as compared with hauling green corn from the 

 field since the cutting and hauling corn for the silo is all done 

 at once. In planning silos, it is a good plan to build one designed 

 especially for winter feeding and without danger of too much 

 silage being spoiled. 



Next to corn and alfalfa should probably be placed sorghum 

 as a soiling crop. The yield per acre of green sorghum is very 

 large and it serves much the same purpose as green corn. 



Winter Feeding — Fortunately, the period of winter feeding 

 in this latitude is shorter than in most of the dairy States. By 

 pasturing wheat and having a blue grass pasture which has 

 not been eaten down, to turn into late in the fall, the pasturing 

 season can be greatly prolonged. The great problem in winter 

 feeding, as already stated, is in general, to maintain summer con- 

 ditions. It is entirely feasible to maintain practically these sum- 

 mer conditions throughout the entire winter on any farm when 

 the subject is properly understood and the necessary arrange- 

 ments made. In order to point out how these summer conditions 

 may best maintained during the winter, statements already 

 given will be discussed in detail. 



Amount of Feed — The first condition given as typical of 

 the summer feeding is an abundance of palatable food, and on 

 this point is made one of the most common mistakes in feeding 

 cows. In producing milk, the cow may be looked upon in a way 

 as a milk producing machine which we supply with a certain 



