OCR Text |
Show I DAIRY POINTS SUNFLOWER IS MADE USEFUL Experiments Not Sufficiently Devel-oped Devel-oped to Reach Definite Conclusions Conclu-sions in Northwest. (Prepared by the "United States Department ot Agriculture.) Sunflowers are likely to become good for silage material for farmers on Irrigated Irri-gated land in the Northwest, according accord-ing to reports received by the United States Department of Agriculture from Montana. The Mammoth Russian Rus-sian is in much favor, although experiments experi-ments have been tried with some of the smaller varieties. The sunflowers were drilled in rows 20 inches apart and irrigated. They were put in about the middle of May, but from their frost-resistant qualities It is believed they could be put In at the some time as grain Is sown. About 15 pounds of seed were used to the acre on irrigated land, but it was stated that if sunflow- Gathering Sunflowers for Silage. ers are to be raised under dry-land conditions the seed should be put In rows 80 to 36 inches apart. On the project under observation it was intended to let the sunflowers get fairly well matured, about the same as corn, before putting them in the silo, but as a storm broke them down it was necessary to put them in the silo earlier. The yield was from 30 to 40 tons per acre. Cows fed on sunflower silage kept up the usual flow, of milk as well as those which were fed on the grain silage. Some of the big Holstein cows ate as much as 90 pounds per day. No unfavorable results could be noticed in the flavor of the milk. While this experiment has not gone far enough to reach definite conclusions, It indicates that sunflowers may be considered con-sidered a good crop for silage in some localities. |