STACK ENSILAGE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1085, 12 April 1913, Page 3

STACK ENSILAGE.

As a winter feed for stock, stack ensilage is coming into great favour, and is now used by farmers irom the North Cape to the Bluff. What has assisted to a large extent to make the advantages of this kind of winter feed known to the farmers has been the action of the Department of Agriculture in appointing an expert to travel the country instructing those on the land how stack ensilage is made. The Department’s instructor, Mr W. Dibble, has had his time fully occupied for the past 18 months in supervising the making of ensilage for farmers in all parts of the Dominion, and this week was in Foxton for the purpose of supervising the building of a stack of maize ensilage for Mr W. S. Carter. Mr Dibble says that stack ensilage is in favour as all grasses can be used —even the rough growth near hedges and plantations may be included — though plants such as green oats, wheat, maize, vetches, peas, etc., are far more valuable. To insure success in making stack ensilage, the essential required is sufficient quantity to insure heat, and also to avoid the great waste that occurs on the exposed surfaces of small stacks—that is to sav, by making the stack higher and thicker the proportion of loss is much smaller. The great advantage of making stack ensilage is that the stack may. be built in any paddock, and at a point where it can be most conveniently used for feeding purposes. The stack should be built on a level site. It should not be near the milkingshed, as the milk may become tainted from the odour set up from the heating of the stack. The - least quantity that can be profitably preserved by stack ensilage is usually estimated at 25 tons. This should be set out to cover a space of 14ft. by 14ft. Grasses or fodder plants for silage should be cut when they are in the most succulent stage, or when approaching full bloom. Maize should be allowed to stand until the grain-cob is formed. Crops for silage should not be allowed to wither in the sun, but carting and stacking should proceed as soon as possible after cutting. The silage will be greatly improved by the addition of salt, in the proportion of i l /? lbs to the ton of green material. Green silage is relished by stock, even though good grass may be available. For maintaining a milk-supply silage is invaluable. As the crop tor ensilagemaking is usually cut early in the season, weeds are removed before the seeds ripen. This assists in the maihtenance of clean pastures,

Ensilage costs to make about onefourth more than hay. There is the compensation that the ensilagemaker is independent of weather — rain cannot spoil it. As a milkproducer ensilage ; s immeasurably superior to b y

Mr Dibble stau *at last year some 1000 ‘"os of ensilage was made in the Taieri district from Californian thistle, thus proving that it can be made from almost any succulent weed.