ENSILAGE HINTS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 30 July 1927, Page 14

ENSILAGE HINTS.

The ideal in ensilage is to get out the material put into pit or silo or stack as little changed as possible from the original. With lucerne, where the ensilage is best the leaf is all preserved and there is no cooking. Burntup ensilage has lost a large portion ol its vitamins. Stock go for T.lie green, slightly sour, ensilage with avidity. The best condition in the pit is to have no square corners and a very slight batter. Make the corners round, say the experts, and experience is proving its efficacy. There were several pits seen round Tokaora which were excellent specimens of the shape that avoids waste. That is the ideal at which to aim; ensilage is too valuable to the dairy farmer to, allow the slightest waste that can he avoided. The best time to cut oats for ensilage is in the early milk stage, in any average year. Get them in as quickly as possible and get the weight on early also.

Many farmers cut lucerne as soon as it shows growth towards the bottom of the stalks, and these include some of the most successful and practical men.

The more earth on the top, the less waste, is the experience of the best makers. But two feet of it is enough. Any more is not economical. It is not good to allow too much growth on the top, because the roots going down spoil the solidity of the covering. An instance is quoted ol pumpkins growing quite well. It i.s generally agreed that ensilage is preferable in* many respects to hay and loots. It is. too, as good as a medicine to cattle, during a difficult time of the season for stock. But it needs to be fed with discretion. One farmer in the Tokaora group, who had a line stack, had cut it from the bottom in steps, an easy means of getting on the top to operate. There is nothing new under the sun. Historians tell oi ensilage made several centuries before the Christian era, and this shows that in many respects farmers have not found anything better than the ancients had in their methods of feeding their cattle. In the United States, it is said, the farmers rarely use a. roof over the silo or pit, and only when conditions render it necessary.

When cutting the stack, do not open more than is necessary, and in this way much waste will be avoided.

Salt is necessary in ensilage, especially away from the coast, but a certain proportion is good everywhere. Two pounds to the ton of green stuff is considered the best proportion.