154 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



this silo will preserve corn in good shape. The cost of it is 

 slight compared with the saving in feed. 



Silage Best Made Before Frost. 



Soft corn that is to be made into silage should be put 

 up before it freezes,, if this is at all possible. It is difficult, 

 however, to anticipate killing frosts, and sometimes corn 

 is badly frozen before cutting. In such cases the crop 

 should be cut just as soon as possible after the frost. Frost- 

 ed leaves soon dry out, winds blow them off, and the conse- 

 quent loss of feed is heavy. Even if the corn cannot be put 

 into the silo immediately, it should be cut as soon as possi- 

 ble after frost. 



It is advisable to will} very immature corn for a period 

 of one to four days, depending on the weather, before put- 

 ting it in the silo. This may be done without injuring the 

 corn by leaving it on the ground, provided the crop is cut 

 with a corn binder and thrown off in bundles. If the cut- 

 ting is delayed for some time after the corn has been frozen, 

 thej wilting will nof} be necessary. 



When corn is badly dried out after freezing, some wa- 

 ter may have to be added to the silage to get enough mois- 

 ture in it to pack and exclude air. 



As has been pointed out, farmers with limited silo ca- 

 pacity can save the most valuable part of their soft corn 

 crop by making silage out of the ears. They can be husked 

 out and put in the silo alone, or merely snapped and the 

 ears and husks both made into silage. In either case the 

 ears are run thru the silage cutter. Those having approxi- 

 mately 60, percent of moisture will not need additional wa- 

 ter, but silage containing less than this percentage should 

 be given all the, water that ,the cut mass will absorb. This 

 water can be handled thru the fan. 



Cheapest to Dry Ear Corn in the Field. 



Because of the lack of enough live stock for quick feed- 

 ing and the limited number of silos, the big problem, in sav- 

 ing soft corn on grain farms is to store it and dry it out to 

 a point where it will not spoil. 



