Alfalfa Silage

The desirability of a satisfactory method for preserving alfalfa as silage has long been recognized.Because of the fact that only a part of the attempts to obtain a good grade of silage from alfalfa have been successful, the studies described in this paper were undertaken with the object of trying to solve some of the difficulties involved in the problem.The present paper is a preliminary report of studies now in progress.HISTORICAL lV[any reports of experiments with alfalfa and other legumes as silage crops appear in the literature, but only those which seem to have a direct bearing on the studies reported in this paper are mentioned in this brief review.Trials have been reported (10, 11, 12, and 13) in which it was found that good quality silage was produced from alfalfa only, while'other reports (8 and 14) state that great losses or complete failures occurred when alfalfa was ensiled alone.Allowing the alfalfa to wilt before ensiling was found successful by several investigators (3, 4, 10, and 12), while others (1 and 13) point out that it should be ensiled before it has wilted much.It is stated in several reports (1, 2, 5, 6, 11, and 12) tha t mixing molasses with the alfalfa as it is ensiled proves effective in increasing either or both the palatability and keeping qualities of the silage.Another report (9) describes successful results with mineral acids as preservatives.Mixing green alfalfa with freshly-harvested sugar-containing crops such as corn, sorghum, kafir, green rye, and mixing with corn meal have also been reported (6, 11, and 12) as effective methods of making good silage.Investigations (7 and 8) of the kinds and amounts of acid present in alfalfa silage led to the conclusion that the acid fermentation of alfalfa silage is dissimilar to that of corn silage and that alfalfa silage is unfit for feeding unless fed soon after ensiling.EXPERI~C£ENTAL METHODS ¢~eries A.--Cylindrical, galvanized-iron cans about 9 inches in diameter and 27 inches deep were used as silos.The capacity of each was about 37 pounds of chopped alfalfa.The alfalfa consisted of young, new growth crop following three harvests earlier in the season.There was a very small admixture of weeds.It was harvested with a field mower on September 1{~ 1935, taken from the field at Once, and chopped into short lengths by a