ENSILAGE-MAKING- IN THE WANGANUI DISTRICT.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 241, 29 January 1898, Page 6 (Supplement)

ENSILAGE-MAKING- IN THE WANGANUI DISTRICT.

HOW IT IS MADE. HINTS FOR WAIKATO DAIRYMEN. Although the making of ensilage is so simple a matter, aud the value of the product as feed for dairy cows so very much superior to cither hay or roots, it has not “ caught on ” with the dairymen of this district to any extent. There are a few farmers round Tauwharc, certainly, who make it regularly, aud who speak with enthusiasm as to* its suitability as food for milking cows, hut these may be taken as tho exception which proves the rule. A Mr Allan McNeill, a practical farmer in the Wanganui district, writing to the Weekly Press, gives the following interesting information regarding ensilage, together with the modus operandi of its manufacture as practised by the Wanganui farmers, aud we commend its perusal to the dairymen of Waikato. What a difference it would have made to their milk returns had they had a stack or two of ensilage to cut at during the long spell of dry weather wc have experienced this spring! There need he no fear of making too much: it has been proved by Mr Dodd of this district to he of equal value after being made two years as if used six months after stacking. A stack might thus always be held in reserve to tide the cows over a season when there was a scarcity of pasturage. MR McNEILL’S PAPER. Ensilage making—both iu silo and stack—has been a good deal before the agricultural and pastoral community of late years ; but the practical dairy farmer requires to he very sure, indeed, of his ground before he launches out on an altogether new system of fodder preservation. In face of this, I have thought that the story _ of my own experience of ensilage making, in stack form, would have some interest for other farmers, more especially as my experience has been attended by unqualified success. On the West Coast of the North Island the grass grows most of the winter, but it is, of course, rather poor aud watery stuff; therefore, it must he supplemented in some way. Our first effort to do this was in the old-fashioned way, viz., roots aud hay. We very soon found this system clumsy, inefficient, and involving an enormous loss of time. Our attention was then drawn to “ stack ensilage,” aud we experimented in a very small way with garden rubbish, weighting with anything aud everything we could lay our hands upon, from a singlefurrow plough to a wheelbarrow, aud finally our little stack was weighted with earth. The centre of this stack was ensilage (though somewhat black, owing to insufficient pressure), and our cows ate it readily. Next year wo made a larger stack of better material, aud the following one a still larger, with considerable success. During the last seven years we have made ensilage regularly with increasing satisfaction each year. Our principal material has been grass, chiefly ryegrass and clover; but wo have successfully made ensilage with maize, oats aud vetches, peas, barley, aud prairie grass. After the first year we adopted a simple mechanical idea of our own for pressing, and during the last three years we have used, witli the greatest satisfaction, a “Johnson” press. This press is capable of pressing 100 tons of material, though we have, so far, found that sixty tons will carry us through the worst three mouths of winter aud early ’spring, during which period we milk from thirty to thirty-five cows. What, then, are the advantages of the “Ensilage System” over the “Hay aud Roots Systems'” They are many, but we will confine ourselves to the principal ones. First, then, certainty aud cheapness of production and speed iu feeding to stock. It is certain, because you have ouly to grasp the principles of manufacture (aud they are very simple), aud you cau make it with less chance of failure than there is iu haymaking. And if you make it of grass, which grows more or less luxuriantly in spring, everywhere without trouble or expense, you have no occasion to worry about the weather, for rain falling during tho building of the stack is of no consequence. In the other system, of course, you must prepare your land, sow your seed and run the risk of its not coming up, or of its being eaten by the flv as soon as it does. Then you must keep the crop clean, gather the roots aud cart them iu (with their 80 per cent, of water), clean them and cut them up before your cows get them. This all takes up much time. We have found that by having a line of wooden rails running from the stack to the shed, and along the passage iu front of the feeding trough, and a trolly, capable of holding about half a ton of ensilage, it is possible for one man to cut a trolly load, and feed it to thirty cows in little more than half-au-liour. Then, again, a cow can eat a ration of ensilage much more quickly than she can one of hay and roots, and she does not require nearly so much water iu the former as m the latter case, which means a great economy of animal heat, especially iu frosty weather. We have found that cows fed upon ensilage through the winter, enter the spring with sleek, glossy _ coats, and invariably “go off” in their yield of milk if the daily ration is suspended before the spring grass becomes plentiful. Another important desideratum in this system is the rapidity with which the land used in production loses its weeds. Everything is taken off the ground in a green and succulent state, and nothing has a chance to seed. Permanent pasture is therefore very soou left in possession of tho field. Now as to our modus operandi iu its manufacture. This year we began cutting about November lytli. Each morning before breakfast we had cut aud horseraked up as much as we could cart in by noon. The same thing was done after dinner. This insured getting the fodder into the stack in the proper condition. Having put a day’s carting into the stack, wc waited a day for the temperature to rise. To ascertain this, we have a galvanised water pipe about live feet long aud an inch aud a-half iu diameter. A wooden spearhead is fitted 011 to the end of this, and it is driven four feet iuto the side of the stack. A dairy thermometer, on the end of a light stick, is then pushed iu, and iu half-au-hour the temperature of the stack is registered on the iustrnmeut. When it rises to over 110 deg. Fahr., aud is seen to he rapidly rising, we go on building again as quickly as possible. As the stack is built the pipe is pulled out and put iu higher up, and provided the temperature does not rise above JGO deg. Fahr., the work of building can go on, but should it rise above this, then pressure should he applied until (by excluding the air) it stops rising. The superiority of mechanical pressure over the popular but clumsy method of weighting with earth is now readily seen. The former plan enables you to regulate the heat of your stack from start to finish, the latter one precludes you from doing so, for it is ohviovsly impossible to keep taking olf and putting on the earth, and the result is that the greater portion of your stack has a large amount of the nutriment burnt out of it. We fouud it necessary to apply the pressure three or four times this year iu the course of building ; and if not pulled down thus, your stack very soon gets to he a very awkward height, and is very likely to fall over: pressure consolidates it, and renders this very unlikely to happen. When we had put on all we required, we built up the tori of the stack in a half circular form, to insure the ropes biting everywhere, aud having put op the seven steel wire ropes (3ft. apart, and a foot projecting at either end), aud pulled them tight with the drums aud levers on both sides of the slack, we dug a ditch round to cany off the juice aud water in wet weather. If the stack is raked up and aud thatched there is of course far less waste at the top. We generally content ourselves with peaking up alone, which seems to cany off most of the rain. As regards waste, there should be very little iu a well-built stack, except at the top. In building salt should be sprinkled on every layer, aud care should be taken to keep the surface of the stack as fiat as possible. A crop of grass that would yield two tons of hay to the acre wifi give from four to five tons of ensilage. And a fifty-ton stack should be made 19ft. by 17ft. at the base. Any crop cau be made into ensilage, with the exception of rape aud cabbage, which have not fibre enough to resist the pressure. Sour ensilage made iu pits or silos is not adapted for feeding to dairy stock as it is very liable, unless great care is exercised, to taint the milk.