|
Silly silos: Part one One obscure fact from Deere’s past is that they made and sold upright wood-stave silos in the early 1900s out of a factory in Kansas City, Missouri.
Just when we think we’ve seen it all, up pops another surprising fact about Deere’s past product line. Not many collectors and enthusiasts know they should be checking out old silos to see if they sport the John Deere brand name! Unfortunately, very few pieces of memorabilia have been found to support this story although resources on file in the Deere & Company Corporate Archives prove it. John Deere King Corn silos According to a brief story written by Ralph Hughes in Green Magazine (November 2000), his research uncovered a full-page, full-color photo of a John Deere King Corn silo on page 448 of the 1912 General Catalogue out of the Kansas City branch. He also mentions that the Archives had a 48-page brochure printed in 1912 with some testimonials dating back to November 1910. That means that John Deere wood-stave silos were probably available back in 1909. But the first ad for the product didn’t appear in The Furrow magazine until a spring issue in 1910. A more-recent request to the Archives revealed a 60-page brochure also dated from 1912 that seems to be targeting the "farmers and stockmen of the Middle West." That makes sense since the famed Corn Belt is in the heart of the Midwest! Testimonials from members of the farm media date back to 1909 in this literature. Dating dilemma An early page gives us a clue about dating this product line. It says: "Our forty-three years of successful dealing with the farmer is our warrant for soliciting your patronage on our KING CORN SILO." If this is from 1912, that means 43 years ago was 1869. But we know Deere started in 1837 so why is the math funny? As it turns out, 1869 is the year Deere opened its first branch house at Kansas City!
Another line in this introduction says they decided to manufacture a silo three years ago. By my math, that means they first made them in 1909, which also matches the dates of letters from editors of farm media reprinted in the brochure. Silos and silage Before The Green Girl gets carried away talking about silos, maybe I should first explain what a silo is and why it holds silage just in case there are a few city slickers or non-Midwestern readers! After all, we’re not talking about the silos that hold missiles or nuclear warheads! Thankfully, the brochure gives us a definition: "The SILO is a large cylinder-shaped tank building with a continuous door opening on one side. SILAGE is green feed stored in a silo during the summer months for use at other times of the year when it is impossible to secure green feed." So who would need a silo to hold silage? Dairy and beef cattle operations primarily, as well as "breeders and feeders of sheep and hogs," says the brochure. The Green Girl can vouch for this fact as my family farm in Northwest Iowa has a very tall (80-foot) silo that holds silage for feeding to beef cattle all winter long. But who really knows what "green feed" or "silage" is? Silage is actually a shortened word for "ensilage." And Webster’s Dictionary tells us silage is "fodder preserved through fermentation in a silo." The word dates back to 1875 to 1885 according to the word wizard.
If you look up "ensilage," it says: "the preservation of green fodder in a silo or pit" or "the fodder preserved." And the dictionary tells us that silo is: "a structure, typically cylindrical, in which fodder or storage is kept; a pit or underground space for storing grain, green feeds, etc." More definitions can be found here. Does that answer your question? Actually, I can better explain this practice by telling you a little more about raising corn. Naturally, everyone knows the ear of corn is harvested for feed, grain, and other uses. But what about the stalks that are left standing in the field or chopped up and blown out the back of the combine? Corn cob math As our forefathers understood, nothing should go to waste. And that was the basis for choosing to put the stalk part of the corn crop to good use as well as the ear itself. A common fact of the day was that the ear was about 60 percent of the feeding value of the crop, leaving 40 percent for the stalk. "This forty cents on the dollar largely goes to waste in the field and sixty cents on the dollar is placed in the crib," notes the King Corn Silo brochure. It goes on to give more math in greater detail. "The corn stalks left in the field are never worth more than $1.00 an acre. The same corn stalks in a silo are worth $14.00 an acre when the corn is worth $21.00, or a ratio of two-fifths and three-fifths. This is an average yield of 42 bushel per acre at 50 cents per bushel."
Maybe some of you remember seeing corn stalks stored in shocks standing in the field. However, this results in just 25 percent feeding value, requiring four times as much in the shock as you would need in the silo for the same results. Plus, shocked stalks lose their feeding value quickly…unlike silage stored in a silo for a few years. The brochure gives a unique comparison…"about the same as oats or well-cooked oatmeal on the breakfast table for the members of the household, or shelled corn or well-cooked corn bread for the same family on the dinner table. Most any good housewife can tell which the children relish the more, and which is the more wholesome diet…" In other words, there is no comparison to "succulent silage, a perfectly preserved food for all of the live stock on the farm, from the chickens to the draft horse." More silage stuff Did you realize that "silage is a thoroughly cooked food, having gone through the first two stages of digestion in the silo, namely, heating and fermentation, enabling the stock to consume all parts of the plant, from the ground to the tassel?" When is silage harvested anyway? "…(T)he corn is placed in the silo at the most favorable time of its existence as a food, when the grain and the stalk are both matured yet neither have solidified, when two-thirds to three-fourths of the kernels on the ear are dented and when the stalk is matured but not dry, at the very time when it can be masticated [that’s chewed for you non-technical folks!], digested and assimilated most completely, leaving no undigested food whatever in the droppings, also fed at a time when it is warm and palatable. Every feeder knows that a large portion of the dry feed fed to stock is undigested and not assimilated."
Lest you think The Green Girl was going to gloss over the talk of "droppings," check this out! "Another advantage which follows the above in the use of silage is that we not only save and utilize one hundred percent of the corn put into the silo, but the manure is handled with much less labor and with better results; for the amount of plant life retained in the silage that goes back to the farm is far greater than that which returns to the soil by leaving the stalk in the field to be dried up by the sun and blown away by the wind." Now that’s what I call full circle! Next week, we’ll take a closer look at the specifics of a John Deere King Corn Silo, so stay tuned!
Text © 2002 Brenda Kruse. Photos by Brenda Kruse unless otherwise noted. |
