ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 3^ 



Q. How do you plant it? 



A. With an ordinary grain drill. 



Mr. Marvey: Will you tell whether you feed that corn fodded whole 

 or run it through a shredder or cutter? 



A. We cut the fodder. We do it because we have to weigh it out to 

 the cow, and we keep an exact account of the amount fed to the cows. 

 There are dairymen who have followed our method of planting corn and 

 they are feeding it without cutting. There is scarcely any loss, provided 

 it is planted thickly and late. 



Mr. Gurler: If you Lad field corn that was well eared to put in the 

 silo, what state of maturity would you harvest it? 



A. In the dough state. In that way I would get this maximum 

 amount of nutriment I spoke of, and being in silage form succulent. 



Q. More palatable? 



A. Yes sir. 



Q. I can't get the cow to do her best if she does not like her food. 



A. Last spring there were only two weeks that the cows could get 

 grass. To show you how far ensilage will go, I will state that we cut 

 nine acres of corn that was fairly well matured, carrying ears, and it was 

 the same kind of corn that I fed from and after the second week in 

 January. After putting nine acres in the silo, I covered it with cheese- 

 cloth, and on top put some of this later planted corn, so during the fall, 

 while the fodder corn was curing, we fed silage. When the fodder corn 

 was cured we commenced feeding it, and continued it until May 7th, when 

 the cows were turned to pasture. The silage left in the silo was what 

 grew on the nine acres, and we commenced feeding it to about thirty 

 cows in milk on the 21st of May. The nine acres provided all the forage 

 needed for the cows, fourteen steers coming 2 years in the fall, 13 year- 

 lings, some ten calves and 2 bulls until the new crop was ready for the 

 silo the first week in September. Before cutting the new crop and run- 

 ning it into the silo, we removed and weighed what was left in the silo, 

 and there was 1,800 pounds, about half of it good enuogh to be fed to 

 milch cows. 



