614 Roots v. Silage for Dairy Cows. [Oct., 



ROOTS V. SILAGE FOR DAIRY COWS. 



A. W. Oldershaw, B.Sc, 

 Agricultural Organiser for East Suffolk, 

 and 



P. C. Smith, B.A. 



It is well known that in the Eastern Counties the system of 

 ensilage has made great progress during recent years. Iji 1916 

 an experiment was conducted by one of us on the farm of 

 Mr. C. C. Smith, Walton Hall, Felixstowe, to ascertain 

 whether a ration of 60 1b. of silage could . replace 60 1b. of 

 mangolds and 7 lb. of straw chaff. Tt was found that there was 

 very little difference in the amount of milk given by the cows 

 fed on the two rations. Particulars of this experiment were 

 given in this Journal for June, 1916. Since then it has been 

 iclaimed that, owing to the fact that silage contains consider- 

 ably more albuminoids than roots, it is possible to reduce the 

 quantity of expensive concentrated food fed when silage is 

 being used. 



This argument appeared to be reasonable, and the matter 

 was considered to be of sufficient importance to warrant the 

 conducting of a special experiment to test the point. Mr. C. C. 

 Smith again very kindly placed his herd of covrs at Searson's 

 Farm, Trimley, at our disposal, and the twelve most suitable 

 cows in the herd were selected for the purposes of the experi- 

 ment. Unfortunately some of the cows had calved rather a 

 long time before the experiment commenced, and consequently 

 their milk yield was getting somewhat low. It was decided to feed 

 the following rations daily: — 



Silage Ration. Root Ration. 



60 lb. Silage. ' 60 lb: Yellow Globe Mangolds. 



2 ,, Dried Grains. 4 „ Dried Grains. 



2 „ Decorticated Cotton Seed Meal. 4 „ Decorticated Cotton Seed Meal. 

 10 „ Chaffed Straw (Barley). 10 „ Chaffed Straw. 



14 „ Kale (Marrow-stem). 14 „ Kale (Marrow-stem). 



All the marrow-stem kale was used up on 20th February, and 

 from that time the rations fed were as above, without the kale. 

 -The silage fed was made from winter oats and tares, sown at 

 the rate of 2 bushels of oats and 1 bushel of tares per acre. It 

 was made in a cylindrical stave silo of the usual pattern. The 

 . green material was chaffed and elevated into the silo by a com- 

 bined cutter and blower, the work being done on several days 

 from 20th to 27th June, 1920. 



Composition of the Rations Fed.— A sample of the silage was 

 taken for analysis and was very kindly examined by Mr. W. S. 



