52 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



believe we should grow corn, I believe we should grow 

 oats, and the third thing we should grow is a legume. I 

 do not know how much legume you grow, because the 

 fields are covered with snow ; I am hoping that half of the 

 fields in this section of the country are fields of alfalfa, 

 because of the fact that if we can grow more corn, oats 

 and legumes, those are the feeds which cattle eat and use. 



You say, '1 can grow my corn, and I can sell that corn 

 and buy alfalfa hay." I don't care if you do, you can raise 

 it much cheaper than you can buy the alfalfa hay, and if 

 you raise it you have got it. I raise my corn, I raise my 

 oats, I raise my legume hay, and just as my farm or any 

 of the farms in southern Illinois will produce more hay, 

 will produce more corn and oats, I put on more cattle to 

 consume that, and not a dollar's worth of corn and not a 

 dollar's worth of oats or legume hay goes from my farm, 

 because if I don't do that I am selling and selling every- 

 thing from the soil, as we have been doing all over Illinois 

 all these years. 



If we grow legumes we are supplying vitamines and 

 mineral content, which has been and will be talked to you 

 today and tomorrow. 



The question comes, if we grow these feeds, the next 

 thing is for us to prepare those feeds. Corn as it is grown 

 is not fit for a cow to eat, but it must be ground. Some of 

 our soy bean hay must be ground; it is too woody. Some 

 of our alfalfa may be ground to mix with it, so the very 

 first thing I did in my dairy work was to prepare — first to 

 grow my seed, second to prepare that seed. 



I bought a feed grinder, that is a combination feed 

 grinder. That is called the Letts grinder. It is the best 

 I know on the market at the present time because it is an 

 ensilage cutter combined with a feed grinder, and I could 

 fill my own silos and grind my own feed, and more than 

 that if I wanted to, and 1 did too, I could grind my own 

 alfalfa hay and my own soy bean hay in order to supple- 

 ment the bran. 



The feeds which I have been feeding in a mixture 

 were 600 pounds of corn to 600 pounds of ground oats, 



