STACK ENSILAGE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1748, 6 September 1905, Page 59

STACK ENSILAGE

SOME PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE.

In making stack ensilage a few good rules should bs observed. First, the stuff, be it barlev grass and lucerne, wheat, oats, barley, or just ordinary natural grass and herbage, should be cut while it is in the succulent stage. The flower on the ear is regarded a® the best guide to the proper time to cut cereals for a silo, and this may be accepted as a general rule. It is specially important in making stack ensilage that the straw should go into the stack before the least hardening haa taken place. The crop or grass should therefore be allowed to attain its greatest bulk, and should be cut before thei plant is drawn upon, to form the grain. The stuff should be allowed intervals in which to settle. At the Wagga State Farm two stacks are kept going alternately, working one day on each. Other® cut and stack for a couple of days, and then wait a couple of days. The main point is that the outing and stacking should proceed simultaneously, so that the crop or grass is not allowed to dry on the ground. Another important detail is the packing of the stack®. The stuff should be well tramped in, especially at the corners, the object being to avoid air spaces being left, which will result in the surrounding material being carbonised and spoiled. If a standing crop is dealt with it is beet to cut with the reaper and binder, and open the sheaves as they are forked on'to the stack. If grass is used a mower or back delivery reaper is the best machine, followed by a hay rake to pull the stuff into convenient heaps for loading on to the drays. Stack ensilage has been a complete success at- the Wagga farm. Last year Mr 'J. J. McNickle. of Currajong farm., near Wagga, supplied some information concerning his experiences in making stack ensilage, and in response to several requests some extracts from this may be reprinted as follows: —•

?he paddock carried some lucerne and a lot of barley, grass and trefoil. The stuff was cut with the mowing machine, raked together with a horse hay-rake, and carted to the stack. The plan pursued was to out two or three days, stacking as the stuff was cut, then allow the Stack to settle during a few days, to be followed by another couple of days cutting and shacking, and so on. After the fourth lot the stack, which was 18 by 12 feet, was 15 feet high. Some posts and rails were thrown, on top, and the shack was roofed with* 'hay loads from

the best part of the lucerne paddock. In the following February Mr McNickle cut into the stack, and the ensilage was found to be a complete success. He fed milking cows on it, and the milk yield began to increase immediately. His stud ewes commenced lambing in March, and there was no green feed for them. He put 500 in a ten acre paddock, and fed them on ensilage for about two months. They did well, and he had over ‘BO ner cent, of lambs. The stuff on the outer edge of the stack had dried in to about eighteen inches, and a little of this was mildewed. Almost all of it, however, was good hay, and the cattle and sheep ato it readily, so that Mr McNickle does not consider the loss of actual ensilage of any consequence. After the first stack was finished he did not consider it safe to go any further until the result was determined, and the best part of the paddeck carrying about four-fifths lucerne,-one-fifth barley grass and trefoil, was cut for hay. The stock, however, preferred the ensilage to this. Sheep turned intp the paddock neglected green grass and the lucerne hay, and burrowed into the ensilage stack. So satisfied is Mr McNickle that ensilage is better and more profitable than hay that he is putting up 150 tons in two stacks this season. Most lucerne paddocks in such districts as Wagga carry a. lot of barley grass at this time of the year. When this grass gets dry and the seed ripens it is very troublesome and injurious to’stock; the seeds adhere to the jaws and the membrane of the cheeks, where they accumulate, impair masticaiioa and digestion, and often set up local inflammation. Cut green, thfe barley grassland anything that is growing with it make excellent ensilage, while if there is another good growth in a lucerne paddock that also may be cut and made into luccrno hay. Mr McNickle this season keeps the mowing machine, hay-rake, carting, and stacking going all at once. This means employing eight men; one on the mower and one on the hay-rake, which drags the heavy green stuff into heaps; two pitching on te the drays, and two stacking. By building two stacks operations are continuous working two days at each, and putting up 10 to 15 tons per day. The wages amount to £2 a day, and the whole cost is under 5s per ton. “I am quite sure,” said Mr McNickle, that when people come to understand the value of ensilage and go in for it in good seasons they will be able to withstand a year or two of drought without serious losses in stock.” All gras£ should be put in while it is green, for mixture of dry and green may promote spontaneous combustion. The stack as a silo is regarded by experts as a step to the constructed silo, a means _ by which the farmer may make some-" thing of ensilage before incurring the outlay cn a structure. This is a good sequence on A dairy farm, where the ensilage is fed right out each year, but for storage against drought the stacks are best, because it would hardly pay to build several expensive silos to hold a few hundred tons for a few years. Eight men, a mowing machine, and a hay-rake may be something beyond the resources of many farmers, but as Mr McNickle points out, it is better for two to club their machinery and available bands l together and run up the stacks on each farm on the plan described, than for each to proceed slowly according to his means.—“ Sidney Morning Hearld.”