American Agriculturist, December 13, 1921 
What Is Silage Worth? 
How to Estimate the Content of a Silo 
AA/’E have bad a number of inquiries 
* * from our readers recently as to how 
to figure the value of silage and to esti¬ 
mate the contents of a silo. During the 
winter there are always a good many 
occasions when farms change hands or 
new tenants take control, when it is 
necessary to estimate the amount of silage 
left in the silo and its value. Such esti¬ 
mates are very difficult to make because 
of the great variation in quality of silage 
and because there are few standards of 
value with which silage can be compared. 
However, we have secured considerable 
opinion and advice from which we are 
making the following suggestions as a 
guide in getting the amount and value of 
silage. 
How To Determine Cubic Content 
Lot us consider first how to determine 
the contents of any silo in tons. The New 
York State College of Agriculture points 
out that figuring the contents of a silo 
would be a very simple matter if the silo 
contained nothing but air or water or 
rocks; but silage packs down, so that the 
higher the silo the greater pressure on the 
bottom layers, which means that there are 
more pounds to the square foot at the 
bottom of the silo than at the top. The 
time of filling the silo and the condition of 
the corn also cause a variation of the 
weight. 
However, the following table shows the 
weight of average silage at various depths 
of a cubic foot. Another and more com¬ 
plete table will be found at the bottom of 
this page. The first figure indicates the 
feet and the second the number of 
pounds: 10-2G; 12-27%; 14-29; 16-30%; 
18-32; 20-33%; 22-34%; 24-36; 26-37%; 
28-88 Li; 30-39%; 32-40%; 34-41%; 36- 
42%; 38-44; 40-45; 42-46; 44-47; 46-48; 
60-50; 60-54. 
An Illustration Worked Out 
Now let us, for an illustration, figure 
the contents in a silo 12 feet in diameter, 
40 feet high, containing 36 feet of silage, 
after the silage has settled. It is first 
necessary to get the area of the bottom. 
Some of you will remember the old 
arithmetic rule that the area of any circle 
is obtained by squaring the radius and 
multiplying by 3.1416. Putting it 
another way, the area is figured by multi¬ 
plying half the diameter by itself and 
then by 3.1416. The diameter of this silo 
is 12 feet. The radius, therefore, is 6 
feet, and 6 times 6 times 3.1416 gives 
113.1 square feet. 
Multiplying this area of 113.1 square 
feet by 36* feet (the depth of the silage), 
gives 4,071.6 cubic feet of silage. By 
consulting the above table, it will be 
found that the number of pounds per 
cubic feet, when the height of silage is 36 
feet, is 42% pounds. Therefore, if we 
multiply 4,071.6 cubic feet by 42%, we 
find that the silo contains-, in round 
numbers, 174,000 pounds. Dividing this 
by 2,000 gives 87 tons. 
Now let us suppose that 16 feet have 
been fed off and you desire to know the 
remaining tonnage. By consulting the 
table it will be found that 16 feet of silage 
averages over 30% pounds to the cubic 
foot. Therefore, multiplying the number 
of cubic feet—1,809.6—by 30%, we have 
53,175 pounds fed out. The cubic con¬ 
tent of 1,809.6 is obtained by multiply¬ 
ing one-half the diameter (6 feet), by 
itself, then by 3.1416 and then again by 
the height, 16, (6 x 6 x 3.1416 x 16). By 
multiplying this cubic content, as we said 
above, by 30%, we get 53,175 pounds fed 
out. Subtract this amount fed out from 
174,000 pounds (the'total amount in the 
silo), which gives a difference of 118,825 
pounds remaining, which is approxi¬ 
mately 59 tons. 
What Is Silage Worth? 
Now what is this silage worth this year? 
p Professor W. I. Myers, of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agricultural Economics and 
Farm Management at the New York 
State College of Agriculture, writing on 
the value of silage says: “On the basis of 
digestible nutrients, a ton of silage is 
approximately equal to 60 pounds of 
corn plus 320 pounds of hay. However, 
if its succulence does not make it worth 
more than the digestible nutrients, it is 
not a cheap feed and probably would not 
be worth raising on a large proportion of 
the farms.” 
Some Cost Figures 
At present prices, silage figured on this 
basis, that is, by comparing the digestible 
nutrients with corn and hay, will be worth 
only about .$3.38 a ton. But as Prof. 
Myers suggests, this value is far too low 
because silage is worth more than dry 
feed on account of its succulence and being 
so palatable to the cattle. 
Prof. Myers says also that the average 
cost of production per ton of silage on 190 
different farms during the eight years, 
1914-1922, was $7.78 per ton, with an 
average yield of about 7 tons per acre. 
In 1922, on 22 farms, the average cost of 
production was $8.30 per ton. 
While the plan of comparing silage with 
the nutrient value of corn and hay gives a 
too low price, on the other hand, the cost 
of production figures under present con¬ 
ditions are too high. Milk and many 
other farm products at present are bring¬ 
ing considerably under the cost of produc¬ 
tion and therefore it would be unfair to 
ask cost of production prices for silage. 
Mr. C. O. Cromer, Professor of Farm 
Crops at the Pennsylvania State College, 
states that the price of silage which is 
being used by the Pennsylvania State 
College this year is between $5 and $6 per 
ton. Other years it has ranged around 
$4 to $5. 
Mr. Charles H. Baldwin, Director of 
the Bureau of State Institution Farms of 
New York State, thinks that $6 a ton 
would be a very fair price for silage this 
year. 
All Silage Is Not Uniform 
All of these authorities, however, make 
a qualifying statement that the quality of 
the com, how well it is matured, and how 
well it has been cut and packed in the silo 
would have a great influence on the value 
of the ensilage. 
In 1914, the average price of silage was 
about $4.50 a ton. Costs of production 
have of course risen since then, but prices 
of milk at the present time are not so 
much higher. Therefore, it would seem 
fair in figuring the cost per ton of ensilage 
to consider both the costs of production 
and the value of the ensilage as compared 
to the nutrients in hay and com. Figur- 
( Continued, on page 413) 
Capacity of a Silo 
(as estimated by King ) 
Inside 
Diameter 
Height 
Capacity, 
Toas 
Ac-eage to fill Amount that 
—15 tons to should be 
the acre fed daily 
Pounds 
10 
28 
42 
2.8 
525 
10 
30 
47 
3.0 
525 
10 
32 
51 
3.4 
515 
10 
34 
86 
3.7 ' 
525 
10 
33 
65 
4.3 
525 
10 
40 
70 
4.6 
525 
12 
28 
61 
4.1 
755 
12 
30 
67 
4.5 
755 
12 
32 
' 74 
5.0 
755 
12 
34 
80 
5-3 
753 
12 
38 
87 
5.8 
755 
12 
38 
94 
6.4 
755 
12 
40 
101 
7.3 
755 
14 
28 
83 
5.5 
1030 
14 
30 
91 
6.1 
1030 
14 
32 
100 
6.7 
1030 
14 
34 
109 
7.2 
1030 
14 
38 
118 
7.9 
1030 
14 
38 
128 
8.5 
1030 
14 
40 
138 
9.2 
1030 
18 
28 
108 
7.2 
1340 
1C 
32 
131 
8.7 
1340 
- IS 
34 
143 
9J 
1340 
IS 
38 
155 
10-3 
1340 
IS 
38 
167 
11.1 
1340 
IS 
40 
180 
12AJ 
1340 
18 
30 
151 
10.0 
1700 
IS 
32 
168 
11.0 
1700 
18 
34 
181 
12.0 
1700 
18 
38 
198 
13.2 
1700 
18 
38 
212 
14.1 
1700 
18 
40 
229 
15.28 
1700 
18 
42 
248 
16.4 
1700 
13 
44 
264 
17.8 
1700 
18 
46 
282 
18.8 
1700 
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