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Show SILAGE USED IN f FEEDINGJATTLE Corn Fodder Is Gradually Being Be-ing Replaced in Corn Belt Sections. (Prepared by die United State De- ' partmenl ol Agriculture.) In many sections of the corn bell corn fodder is being replaced gradually gradu-ally by silage in the ration for beef animals. Whore there are enough animals ani-mals to justify the building of a silo the feeding if silage is usually the more economical practice of the two. 1 as a much larger proportion of the' isti)er can be Utilised as silage than I otherwise Not onl1 is the rorn plan' more fully utilized, but cattle usually I do bettor on silage thn on a dry rr. j lion. Expensive Feed Silage, because of the grain that it contains and because ot the expense of I putting it up. is a relatively expensive I feed, consequently in localities where I laree amounts of heap. rough feeds ! are available the silo may not always prove economical. However, when I such roughage Is scarce and hirh 'priced the feeding of silage usually I will pay. This would be especially true if. instead of cutting their highest high-est yielding oorn, 'he farmers habitu- ally would select that part of the crop ; having the least grain. The silo Is of J especial value in helping to make the 'most of the corn crop in years when ! the corn is badly damaged by drought 1 or when because of frosts it does not get a chance to mature. In years when hay and grain are ; ! both high, the putting of husked stov er 1 into the silo should prove profitable 1 Although this practice has not been extensively followed, the results that I have been reported seem satisfactory. Fed In Moderate Amounts. In an investigation conducted by 'specialists of the United States de-j partment of agriculture, which included includ-ed a study of nearly 50 stock farms in the corn beit slates, it was found I that silage is an excellent feed for breeding animals, but that from the Btandpoinl of economy it ordinarily ' should be fed only In moderate I amounts and that It should not replace j too much of the cheap roughage. One i hundred of the farms (or nearly one .fifth of those under consideration) 'were feeding silage, and their average I winter feed bill was ?16 per head. On; 1 twenty -nine ot these farms approximately approxi-mately 12 per cent o.' the ralion vva 'silage, an average of three-fourth of 8 t"n being fed to he cow. As 41 per I cent of the feed was made up of cheap ! roughage, the silage displayed only I fodder and the more expensive hay land grains. The average cost of win-t win-t ring the cows on these farms was $11 The average quantity of silage fed on the next 60 farms was 1.8 tons, nearly one-third of the ration being i made up of this feed. Although the cows on these farms received 100 feed nnitl leas teed, their winter-feed bill was $16.53. In the next group. 21 farms, silage constituted one-half of the ration, the cows receiving an av- erase of 2.75 ton each. As only one-fourth one-fourth of this ration was composed of, the cheaper roughage, the average feed bill for those cows was $17 although al-though they received too feed units lens 'ban did the cows in the first, group It is evident that on the farms I In this third group silage was replac-, ing too largely the cheaper farm by-products. |