Ensilage Plays Most Important Role

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 239, 27 September 1930, Page 12

Ensilage Plays Most Important Role

INSURANCE AGAINST BAD SEASONS

IMPROVED DESIGN FOR “ TRENCHES ”

(By

"Sundowner”)

(Written for the “Tribune.” All Hights Reserved.)

During the past winter ensilage has proved such a boon to both sheep and da. / farmers throughout the North Island that at least those who had a supply on hand were thereby enabled to carry their stock through the time of shortage without loss, will not hesitate to again fill their pits or silos this season. It is to be hoped, indeed, that many more will follow the good example of these ensilage pioneers, for nothing is more certain than that droughts and bad winters will come again in their regular rotation, bringing disaster to those farmers who are caught unprepared, but unfeared by the man who looks ahead and lays by a a store of fodder from the surplus of good years which are sure to intervene. Only the most ardent advocates of ensilage claim that it is a perfect fodder for all stock. Like hay, turnips, mangolds, or green fodder crops, it has both its limitations and disadvantages, but from the wide range of materials from which it can be made, its security from deterioration when once safely in the pit or silo, and the different types of stock which thrive on it even when it is the sole supplementary fodder, it certainly deserves to range as one of, if not our most important insurance we have against times of shortage.