In order that a deep enough layer of silage can be fed off each day during the summer to avoid waste, it is evident that to store 250 tons of silage outside the barn, two silos would be required.
The feeding commences at the chute where it is thrown down, and is continued around the circle, ending with the silage cart at the chute again, ready for the next feeding.
B] Since the deeper the silo the more firmly the silage packs, one silo 71 feet deep will hold as much as two silos of the same diameter and 44 feet deep.
The round barn has a special advantage in the work of distributing silage to the cows.
The silage chute being open at the top forms a suction of air, which keeps the silage odor from the barn at milking time, and also assists in ventilation when the door to the chute is open.
With the small number of cows kept, a deep enough layer of silage could not be fed off each day to keep it good thru the summer, if the silo was more than 12 feet in diameter.
Feed, hay for cattle and sheep, silage for cows, maize for pigs.
Milk flow can be stimulated and the health of the cow conserved by feeding moistened beet pulp, where silage is not available.
Corn-stalks now become silage and are fed in a green condition throughout the winter.
Silage is often put up when the corn is more mature, and then the water content is less than here given.
Silage, properly cured, does not belong to this class, because the curing of silage is not a bacterial process.
But spoiledsilage and silage matted with mold is dangerous and should not be fed.
In several instances cattle have been poisoned by silage from a silo painted inside with lead paint shortly before filling.
Plans were made for an abundance of dry fodder to be fed with the lush silage during the coming lean months.
Where silage is wanted, the stubble-land can be seeded directly to wheat with good results.
It is an excellent rotation when early planted potatoes or silage corn follows the sod, favoring the wheat in which the clover again is seeded.
All soil removed from the silage pits, dusty sweepings from the threshing floors, and silt from the irrigation ditches were stored near the cattle shed and used to absorb urine from the work cattle.
Livestock fed the best hay supplemented with grain and silage make fairly rich manure.
In more recent years, fresh wet spring grass was packed green into pits and made into silage where a controlled anaerobic fermentation retained its nutritional content much like sauerkraut keeps cabbage.
The difference in the total nitrogen in the grass and silageis equal to 0.
We have here for the first time an accurate account of the quantity of grass put into a silo, of the quantity of silage taken out, and of the exact composition both of the grass and resulting silage.
The striking difference in the mineral matter of the grass and silage I will merely draw attention to; it is not due to the salt added to the silage.
What is wanted is to compare silage with hay--both made out of the same grass.
This, however, is only comparing silage with grass.
On the other hand it keeps better than sweet silage when removed from the silo.
The closeness with which the fodder is packed determines the nature of the resulting silage by regulating the chemical changes which occur in the stack.
It may well prove, however, that a supply of Japanese cane silage will prove good insurance against periods of shortage even in South Florida.
To the live stock man it is of minor importance, as silage furnishes so satisfactory a substitute.
It is this high fiber content or woody character that makes me dubious about its silage value, in which opinion Professor Rolfs concurs.
There still seems to be question, however, as to the relative value of Japanese cane silage as compared with corn silage.
If cut at the right time it makes good hay, and, while it is rather bulky forsilage alone, it is said to add greatly to the fattening value of silage.
Under certain conditions sorghums will yield greater tonnage than corn, and the resulting silage is but slightly inferior.
Florida possesses, in addition, a unique silage plant in Japanese sugar cane.
If the silage is not packed properly and tightly, especially next to the wall, it does not settle in a compact mass and air is admitted that spoils the silage; or if the silo wall is porous this is apt to occur.
Good silage is a result of proper cutting, proper packing and a correct amount of moisture, because when the silage is stored it begins to ferment.
There are several things to be remembered by farmers when putting fodder into the silo, if they want to have perfect silage to take out.
All of these make good silagewhen properly harvested and stored.
One of the main things is to see that the silage is cut to proper lengths, which would be about half-inch or one-inch pieces.
The industry developed rapidly and soon demonstrated what was necessary to keep the silage pure, sweet, clean and succulent.
The principal silage crop is corn, but in different parts of the country there are other crops which can be used to great advantage as substitutes for corn.
Corn silage is a fine feed if it is not moldy and does not contain so much corn as to be too fattening.
Vegetables, clover or alfalfa hay, chopped corn stover or silage make good roughage for this purpose.
There would be several inches loss of silage before you could start feeding, and you would have to feed at least two and probably three inches off per day in order to keep the food from spoiling.
A cow can consume four tons of silage in 180 days and more or less as you care to feed, so by figuring out how long you will probably feed, you can see the size of silo to build at once.
You ought to be able to get 10 tons of silageper acre from corn grown on good corn land.
It would also as a silage balance up nicely with alfalfa, and the best way to do would be to mix it with alfalfa when putting it in.
Sixty inches of silage would thus only last about twenty days.
It is also unsafe to feed horses frozen silage on account of the danger of colic.
Horses are peculiarly susceptible to the effects of molds, and under certain conditions certain molds grow on silage which are deadly poisons to both horses and mules.
Molds must have air to grow, and therefore silage which is packed air-tight and fed out rapidly will not become moldy.
In many cases horses have been killed by eating moldy silage, and the careless person who fed it at once blamed the silage itself, rather than his own carelessness and the mold which really was the cause of the trouble.
To summarize, silage is safe to feed to horses and mules only when it is made from fairly mature corn, properly stored in the silo.
If the feeder watches the silage carefully as the weather warms up he can soon detect the presence of mold.
Many crops excellent for silage are easily grown, and the cultivation areas need never be idle for a day at any time of the year.
Maize is harvested for silage when the cobs are well filled, and the grain is beginning to glaze; at this stage a normal crop will yield about 20 tons greenstuff per acre.
But the exclusion of air, the close packing, and the small amount of moisture appear to prevent the growth of the common putrefactive bacteria, and the silage remains good for a long time.
Certain acid- producing bacteria after a little begin to grow slowly, and in time the silage is rendered somewhat sour by the production of acetic acid.
The acid acts as a preservative, like the vinegar in pickles, or the acid in silage and in sauerkraut.
Silage produces a distinct, but not unpleasant odor in milk, but newly pastured rye often confers so strong an odor as to render the milk unusable.
The time may come when the conditions to be observed in making good silage from clover will be such that the element of hazard in making the same will be removed.
Good alfalfa silage is more easily made when the alfalfa has been run through a cutting-box than when in the uncut forms.
