November 18, 2020

Corn Product Silage Quality and Tonnage

TRIAL OBJECTIVE

Corn silage is an important feedstock for cattle producers across the Great Plains.
Desirable corn products should produce high tonnage with favorable silage quality characteristics.
The objective was to help provide insights to farmers on tonnage and silage quality of the corn products evaluated in this study.

The study was set up as a randomized complete block with three replications.
Seven DEKALB® corn products were evaluated.
Corn was sprinkler irrigated. Fertility included 100 lb N/acre applied with a streamer bar on 4/27/20, followed by 90 lb N/acre and 15 lb S/acre applied with 360 Y-DROP® applicators on 6/24/20. Weeds were controlled as needed and no fungicides or insecticides were applied.
Silage was harvested when most of the products were at approximately half-milk line using a silage chopper without a kernel processor. Total biomass was collected and weighed. A subsample of the freshly-chopped material was collected and sent to Dairyland Laboratories Inc. for silage quality analysis.
- Two corn products (DKC66-74RIB, DKC70-64RIB) had greensnap at a high level which did not allow for silage tonnage to be calculated but a subsample was taken for silage quality analysis.

Figure 1. DKC64-44RIB Brand blend corn product at the time of cutting.

Figure 2. Average silage yield (tonnage) for corn products tested.

Corn product tonnage was numerically different but variability in the study did not allow for significant differences to be observed (Figure 2).
Corn silage quality was different in all parameters tested (Table 1).
DKC64-44RIB Brand blend and DKC58-34RIB Brand blend had the highest milk per ton for this trial.

Producers should work with their local DEKALB® seed sales team to identify which corn product is right for their operation.

7006_R2_20

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