Ensilage up to Date.

Western Star, Issue 2218, 1 July 1898, Page 3

Ensilage up to Date.

From the Agricultural Gazette of N.F.W.

By J. L. Thompson, Travelling Agricultural Inspector,

Maize Silage not a Complete Ration for Milk Production. (Continued from last issue.)

Good, clean, fairly sweet corn ensilage is as wholesome food, as a part ration for a milch cow, ns is possible to furnish her.

Every farmer who will place good corn in a properly-constructed silo, and feed it judiciously —and that means not as an exclusive ration, but combined with some dried fodder and wheat bran to balance up its lack of protein, will be thoroughly converted to this method of preserving fodder. The following daily rations for dairy cows from 1,000 to 1,2001 b. weight will give good results ; but the dairy-farmer must always remember that the largest success only comes when the wants and appetites of the cows are studied, and the daily ration is modified to suit as far as practicable the individual cows in the herd. Some cows will consume more food than others of the same weight. The large milk-producer is a hearty feeder always ; No. 1. —121 b. of clover hay, 151 b. wheat or straw, 81b. wheat bran, Gib. corn-meal.

No. 2.—501 b. corn ensilage, 101 b. wheat bran, Gib. clover hay. No. 3. —401 b. corn ensilage, 101 b. wheat bran, 21b. oil-meal, 101 b. straw. Ro. 4.—401 b. corn ensilage, 101 b. wheat bran, lib. oil-meal, 11b. corn fodder. No. 5.—151 b. corn fodder, 81b. wheat bran, Gib. of oats, 101 b. straw. Professor Robertson’s, of Canada, Silage Mixture The object of the new Robertson combination for ensilage was to get the heat-producing parts, the flesh-forming parts, and fat together in such proportions that the cow would get at every meal a perfectly-balanced ration. In this new combination we have Indian corn, horse-beans, and sunflowers, and it appears to be a perfect combination, which will give cattle a food containing all the nourishment required. Indian corn—the great sun-plant of America —is undoubtedly the most serviceable crop which has been used for ensilage ; but, although it bo ever so well preserved as to succulence, odour, flavor, and colour, it is an incomplete food for cattle. With a marvellous proclivity for storing up starch, gum, and sugar out of the elements of the air, the corn-plant, becomes a veritable accumulator of sun, strength, and energy. Its carbo-hydrates, or 4 heat-producing parts,’ are largely in excess of its albuminoids, or 4 fleshforming parts.’ These latter are present in no mean quantities in fodder corn per acre ; but for a wholesome, economical, complete food, they are out of correct proportion to the other constituents. The horse-bean, or small field-bean (Faha vulgaris, var. Equina), seems to meet the needs of the case. This plant grows with a stiff, erect, stem of quadrangular shape. It attains here a height of from 3 feet to 4 feet, and it grows in England and Scotland to a height of from 3 feet to C feet. It bears pods from within 0 inches or 8 inches from the base of the stalk to near its top. The ripened beans are of a grayish-brown colour, and of an oblong round shape, about i|-inch long diameter and about g-inch short diameter. Although albuminoids and carbohydrates (in the form of starch, gum, sugar, and fibre) may be contained in an Indian-corn and horse-bean mixture in nearly correct proportions, it is still an incomplete food, from deficiency of fat. The sunflower (ITelkmthus animus) grows luxuriantly over the whole of the temperate zone of this continent, and the seeds contain a large percentage of fat. The variety known as the 4 Mammoth Russian ' was grown in rows 3 feet apart, with the plants from 3 inches to 18 inches distant in the rows. There did not appear to bo any appreciable difference in the weight of the crop per acre where the plants were grown close or more distant in the rows. They yielded at the rate of 7| tons of sunflower heads per acre. From the analyses made by Mr. Shutt, it was. established that they contained 3521 b. of albuminoids and 7291 b. of fat per acre. Half a bushel of horse beans are mixed with one-third of a bushel of Indian corn, and are sown or planted on 1 acre, in rows 3 feet to 3| feet apart. The method of cultivation to be followed is similar to that for the culture of fodder corn. When the corn reaches the glazing stage of growth, the product from 2acres of the mixture (which being grown together, is necessarily handled as one crop) is cut and put into the silo, together with the heads from half an acre of sunflowers. The sunflower heads may be reaped with a common sickle, carried to the cutting-box on a cart or waggon, and put through it, on and with the Indian corn and horse beans.

The following table shows the quantities of the nutrients which are contained in the crop from 2 acres of Indian corn nnd horse-beans grown together, and in the heads from half an acre of sunflowers

Two acres of fodder corn, afc 15 tons per acre, furnish 1,200 single feeds of 501 b. each. The albuminoids in the horse-beans and in the heads from half an acre of sunflowers are the equivalent of the albuminoids in a quantity of mixed cereals sufficient to give with every feed of the 1,200. It is to bo expected that further experiments will demonstrate that the albuminoids in the horse-beans and sunflowers, being in a succulent condition, will be more easily and fully digestible than the ripened cereals. The cost to produce the ‘ Robertson Combination for Ensilage 1 from 2 h acres is 15 dollars more than the cost for growing 2 acres of Indian corn alone. The extra items are : Sunflower seed for half an acre, labour of planting, cultivating, and reaping half an acre of sunflowers, and horse-bean seed for 2 acres; total, 15 dollars. (Horse-beans and sunflowers grow well in nearly all parts of New South Wales.) Against that outlay of 15 dollars, the return in albuminoids is

the equivalent, for the feeding of cattle, of 115 bushels of mixed cereals. I have made no estimate of the value of the large quantity of fat in the sunflowerhosidsi Mr." J. A. Bulkeley (late student at the Hawkesbury Agricultural College, and who is now studying at the Agricultural College, Michigan (U.S.A.), in a letter to me under date 4th October, 1897, says, in reference to the utilisation of the maize crop : 1 The maize is harvested while in a green state, and stacked in the fields in immense sheaves. The cobs are taken from these in a few days, and the stalks and leaves converted either into silage or maize hay for winter cattlefodder.’ Valuable Silage Mixture for Autumn Sowing. A most valuable crop for autumn sowing is a mixture of tares, beans, peas, and oats in the following proportions : 1] bushels tares. 1| bushels tares. i bushel peas. J bus. rye or wheat. 1 bushel oats. | bushel beans. J bushel beans. 2h bushels per acre. 2h bushels per acre. Only those varieties should be sown which come to maturity at the same time. Cutting should take place as soon as all are fully podded, and at fullest growth, and yet still succulent in stalk ; in fact, just as soon as the change of colour becomes perceptible. A winter food is thus secured, which, as compared with the old system, combines the bulk of the straw, the succulence of the roots, and, in addition, there is the grain which supplies the place of cake and meal.

Mr. J. Deapeiasis, M.R.A.C., on Maize as an Ensilage Crop.— 4 Maize and sorghum are, however, grown more extensively than any other crop for making silage with ; clover is also a very strong favourite ; of the many varieties of maize great difference of opinion exists as to which sort is the best for ensilage. Sweet corn does not seem to he as valu-

able for ensilage as the dent variety ; it yields less, and, according to experiments made in America, there is more acid in the ensilage, so that it is not usually as palatable. Southern white and yellow dent are preferred in that country. At first the opinion prevailed that the leaves and stalk were the more desirable, and the larger varieties of quick-growing maize were largely cultivated, and the seed sown at the rate of 2 or 3 bushels to the acre, either broadcast or in drills. This opinion, however, has since been modified very materially, and chemical analyses, illustrated by experiments conducted in the stock-yard, have demonstrated that the more mature the grain, while the stalk remains green, the better the silage will be. By towing too thickly the stalks and leaves are bleached and grow slender, and although exceedingly heavy crops are obtained, the amount of dry substance obtained per acre is not so large as when the maize is planted at a reasonable distance apart, giving more room for each plant to mature the corn. The feeding value, therefore, of a maize crop, o:her things being equal, increases with the amount of light the leaves receive, as it is through the action of the chlorophyll or green colouring matter in the leaves that the plant can assimilate the materials that are involved in the building up of its tissues. The reported yields of fodder maize vary from about 15 to 25 tons per acre in good and fairly well-cultivated soil, while in very fertile and well-managed soil, yields of 30 to 40 tons per acre may be obtained in favourable seasons. Fodder maize should not be sown broadcast, but like a crop grown for corn, planted in drills, at distances varying with the different sorts, the larger varieties requiring more room than the smaller sorts. Drills 3 to 4 feet apart will permit good cultivation, as well as a full development and a proper maturing of the crop, and instead of 1 or 2 bushels, as was recommended a few years ago, thinner sowing, at the rate of 12 quarts or H pecks of seed to the acre (about 1 bushel to 3 acres), gives better results. The best time for cutting the crop is when maize begins to glaze and the grain is in the dough stage, as at that stage only does the plant contain its maximum amount of assimilable feeding materials. ‘The following table will show the

difference of percentage of dry vegetable matter in a maize crop at different stages of its growth Ist appearance Grains beof tassel gin to glaze

Dry vegetable matter ... 12 to 15 23 to 28 Water 85 to 88 77 to 72

100 100 100 100

Thus it is seen that the amount of vegetable matter is nearly twice as large at the beginning of the glazing of the kernels as compared with that of an equal weight of fodder maize when just showing the tassel, while it is, at the same, much more than twice as nutritious, for it contains more starch, more sugar, and more of valuable nitrogenious matter, &c. ‘Maize has been very largely grown for ensilage of late years, since the farmers have begun to realise its many advantages in relation to the conversion of farm produce into moat and milk and muscular energy. Specially-grown crons only are not, however, those exclusively utilised for the purpose of ensilagemaking, and as a means of saving from complete destruction cereal as well as other farm crops attacked by rust or injured by frost, it affords a valuable and expeditious means of saving a part or the whole of a crop, and turning it to some profitable purpose, when it appears evident that crops so damaged could in no other way have been saved and turned to account.

‘ I was forcibly struck, when visiting the rich and fertile flats bordering along the Macleay River, to see extensive fields of full-grown maize-stalks, at the time of my visit completely dry, and standing on the ground amidst a thick growth of gigantic weeds. On inquiry, I heard that this sight is only a repetition of what happens every few seasons after heavy floods from the river have covered the low flats that extend along its banka and inundate the ground for periods ranging from three or four to eight or ten days, or, at all events, a sufficient length of time to destroy the corn crop. Some

day the better-advised farmer will, whenever the flood has not covered the ground long enough to rot the standing crop, cut it as soon as the land is firm enough to allow of his entering the field, and turn it as speedily as practicable into silage. It would be desirable to stack or pit the crops thus damaged before the partly disintegrated tissues dry up, subsequent to the long period of steeping in the water. As to the mud and silt deposited on the stalks during the flood, a good deal of this would scale off in cutting. It is quite likely, of course, that cattle would not like silage thus prepared so well as a sample from a silo made of prime green-stuff' cut in the proper season, but of two evils the least is to convert such damaged crops into silage, rather than lose it altogether. In answer to questions asked of me when visiting the district, by farmers settled on the flats that adjoin the Macleay River, I expressed the opinion that it would be possible to maintain dairy pursuits on some of the low-lying land of the locality with greater certainly than grain crops, as they could turn their maize into silage at any time. One acre of maize would yield 20 to 30 tons of green-stuff fit for ensilage, and the preserved fodder might in its turn be profitably converted into milk. On these low lands the ensilage should be stacked on terraces, lined with saplings to prevent landslips, and raised to a height slightly higher than the level of the flood water. A platform raised on pillars, and covered with a thick flooring made of bark and earth, or any cheap material that would exclude the air from underneath, might also bo a practical expedient for the purpose of building a stack out of the reach of any possible flood.’

Labour-Saving Appliances for Silage Making. “The Corn Harvester,” A machine I would like to draw attention. to is the McCormick corn harvester, which effectually cuts the corn-stalks and securely ties them into compact bundles. It is described in America as the success of the decade. Those of you who have had experience in handling a heavy crop of green maize, by the usual method of first catting with a-sickle, laying down in armfuls, loading it in a loose condition

into a waggon or dray, again feeding it to a chaff-cutter, or stacking it, will at once duly appreciate a machine which will deliver the green succulent maize in well-tied bundles, and will cut from 10 to 12 acres in a day with two light horses. Maize hay is now largely made in the United States. Professor Shelton is doing his best to induce the farmers in Queensland to go in for this product ; I have put up some, and Mr. Philip Charley, of Belmont Park, has also successfully made some. With the corn harvester and binding the making of maize hay is an easy matter, as the stalks can be cut and tied in bundles in a manner similar to that employed in the harvesting of wheat. It has been proved that an acre of maize will produce far more food for stock than any other crop, and as ensilage or when fed in a green state it cannot be excelled for milk production. Mr. Cobb, the College farm foreman, is of opinion that this machine will do as much work in a day as fifteen men, and in this I fully concur. The machine has been at work during last season, it is very strongly made, cannot possibly get out of order, and cuts the stalks close to the ground. The cost is £SO, but there is a probability of it being reduced to £4O. Now it is well known that every small farmer cannot afford to purchase a machine of this kind, but I would strongly recommend the principle of co-operation. Say half-a-dozen farmers joined together and procured a machine of this kind, one would be quite sufficient for one centre, and by this means all would benefit by the introduction of labour-saving appliances. The machine can be inspected at the farm buildings. There are only two machines of this kind in Australia, one indented for Mr. David Syme, of the Age, Victoria, the other for the College farm. A report from Victoria states that, in actual work, Mr. Syme’s machine has far exceeded expectations, Messrs. McLean Brothers and Rigg are the agents for Australia. The Deering Harvesting Company, Chicago, have also perfected a cornharvester somewhat different in principle, inasmuch as the bundle is tied while in a horizontal position, while the McCormick ties the sheaf in a vertical position. None of the Deering cornharvesters have, as yet, been introduced into the colonies, but they are in general use in the United States of America, and Messrs. Laasetter and Co., of Sydney, the agents, intend introducing them for next season.

The Ohio Special Ensilage Cutter. Having dealt with the cutting and binding of the maize in the field, the next operation, if intended either for immediate feeding to milch cows or converting into ensilage, is to cut it into short lengths by means of a chaff-cutter. Now, it is well-known that the ordinary chaff-cutters are not strong enough or at all adapted for this kind of work. The machine will not stand the heavy strain, the process is alow, and altogether unsatisfactory. The Americans, with their usual forethought and ingenuity, have perfected a special maize or ensilage cutter, which will cut the thickest stalks with the greatest ease, and as fast as the stuff can be brought from the field or fed to it. With the Minister’s approval, I obtained, through Messrs. Lasaetter and Company, one of these machines for the College farm, known as the Ohio Standard Feed and Ensilage Cutter. This machine cuts on the lawn-mower principle. It is impossible to chock it or feed too fast. It is furnished with carriers, which will deliver the cut stuff at any height or angle. This keeps the cut fodder away from the front of the machine, and saves at least two or three hands. The price of this machine is only £2O, and it is simply indispensable where large quantities of ensilage is made. Here, again, co-operation might be carried out, one ensilage-cutter would be sufficient for half-a-dozen farmers, and the corn-stalk cutter and binder, with the ensilagecutter, could go together. We have not had a single hitch with this machine, and our silos were filled in one quarter the time they formerly were with the ordinary chaff-cutter. Mr, Turner, a prominent dairy farmer in America, writes as follows regarding these machines. He says : —‘ We wanted a machine that would cut not less than 10 tons per hour, as we put up over 3,000 tons of ensilage every year.' He procured a No. 24 Ohio cutter, which cuts 15 tons per hour, or as fast as the stuff can be brought to the knives.

The Eriksson Ensilage Press. A contrivance which in any way tends to lighten, simplify, or reduce the cost of the work on a farm, and which, more particularly, applies to the all-important question of silage, deserves the widest recognition. With this view, lam very pleased to record the successful completion of the ‘ Eriksson Ensilage and General Press,’ which has been brought under notice by Mr. Henry Wake, of St. Mary’s. Mr. Wake’s letter, in describing the machine, explained that it was not only suitable for ensilage, but also for pressing leather, wool, wine, and all similar purposes. It will clear land by drawing out stumps and pulling down trees. It will straighten up leaning structures, keep piles in place during driving, can be geared and ungeared, fixed or fastened off in a few moments, and is so portable that it can be taken about in the hands, and put to any and all of the foregoing and other purposes one after the other as required. It is also described as extremely simple and durable, of few parts, and can be made in sizes for any strain desired. The letter was in due course forwarded to me, and I thereupon visited Mr. Wake at St, Mary’s, and made a thorough examination, submitting, as a result, the following report:— 4 The power is provided by the ratchet and pawl principle, similar to the 1 Forest Devil.’ At the time of my visit it was applied to an ensilage stack by means of steel wire ropes. These were passed over the stack perfectly straight, and kept in position at each side by means of sheaves (any number of ropes can be applied, according to the size of the stack). After passing through the sheaves, which are securely bolted on to a heavy sleeper, the ends of the steel ropes are brought forward and attached to the sliding part of the ratchet; the lever is then applied, and the whole of the ropes thereby tightened. The ratchet appliance is fastened on to a heavy sleeper sunk in the ground. It more power is required, the ropes can be used through an ordinary multiplying block ; the purchase gained can bejheld by simply inserting an iron pin in the horizontal sleeper, and a fresh hold can be taken, or the ratchet removed to another stack, or used for other purposes. The ratchet power only costs £7 10s„ and can be used for all purposes of pressure, such as baling wool, sheepskins, leather, hay, and straw. It can also be used for pulling down trees, and many other purposes about a farm-’

The End,

grown separately : — — Aluminoids Garbohydrts Fibre Fat Indian corn : lb. lb. lb. 15 tons per acre30 tons 1,092 10,302 324 Horse-beans: 4‘5 tons per acre9 tons 490 1,301 125 Sunflower heads: 7.5 tons per acre3'75 tons 170 1,180 320 Total 1,758 12,849 813