OCR Text |
Show Proper Time to Harvest Com Crop for Silage Corn for silage should be harvested harvest-ed when the kernels are well dented but while the plants are still green enough to pack well and to ferment normally in the soil. An air tight silo is, of course, essential. Given these conditions the general quality of the silage may be improved by the following fol-lowing practices : 1. Cut the corn into small pieces. If the pieces are from one-half to three-fourths of an inch in length, the sijage will pack well and will be eaten with minimum waste. 2. The heavy and the light parts ot the corn should be evenly distributed so that the whole mass can be firmly and evenly packed in the silo. If the heavy parts ears and stalks are thrown largely in the center or one side, the silage will settle unevenly and considerable spoiling will result. If the corn is too ripe to pack well, water should he added as needed. A silo may be filled with dry shock corn, which makes a satisfactory feed with the addition of sufficient water, but it is not so palatable as silage cut at the proper stage and put into the silo green. Water may be run into the top of the blower by means of holes. The water should he well distributed dis-tributed to facilitate packing. |