CROPS, ENSILAGE A

ENSILAGE CROPS |

This article is a digest from several bulletins published by various Provincial and the
Dominion Department of Agriculture.

For further information on this subject write to your nearest Agricultural College or
Experimental Farm. For list of these see Bulletin No. 46.

ISSUED BY

EATON’S FARM NEWS SERVICE
WINNIPEG, CANADA

Silage may be produced economically in practically all parts of the three Prairie
Provinces.

Almost any green fodder grown on the farm may be used for ensilage, but in the
three Prairie Provinces the most popular and widely used crops are corn, sunflowers,
oats and sweet clover.

USE THE CROP TO SUIT THE DISTRICT

There is a wide difference in soil, rainfall, altitude and growing season between
the head of the lakes and the Rocky Mountains; hence the conditions prevailing in any
one locality will determine which of these three crops to use.

Cutting Ensilage Corn at Manitoba Agricultural College

Six things should be taken into consideration in selecting a suitable crop for
ensilage:

(a) Yield or tonnage, (b) feeding value, (c) succulence, (d) palatability, (e) odor
or flavor, (f) cost of production, and also the condition in which the soil is left
for the succeeding crop.

Other things being equal, the crop that reaches the highest state of maturity,
and contains the most grain, will produce more milk, beef and butter-fat than will big,
juicy stalks.

Corn requires a quick, warm growing season, with warm nights, while sunflowers
will do with a slower growing season and cooler nights. In the higher altitudes, and
close to the mountains, corn does not reach that stage of maturity desired for high-class
silage, while sunflowers will germinate at a lower temperature, and being more frost-
a have a longer growing season than corn, and hence produces more and better
silage.

Note—No hard and fast rule can be laid down in determining the crop most
suitable for the various districts. All that can be suggested here is the crop that has
been found by experience to be, generally speaking, the most suitable. Each farmer
piss to determine for himself the particular crop that best suits his own land and
conditions.

It is not. necessary to grow one ensilage crop exclusively. Many farmers put in a
patch of two or more of these crops, and they are almost sure of a paying tonnage in

each, though the season may suit one crop better than another.
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