This question came from one of my colleagues –
What’s your thoughts on hi chopping corn silage if a guy has sufficient haylage inventory? What’s the expected yield drag and how much can we increase digestibility on the corn silage ? Worth it?
Larry
This question came from one of my colleagues –
What’s your thoughts on hi chopping corn silage if a guy has sufficient haylage inventory? What’s the expected yield drag and how much can we increase digestibility on the corn silage ? Worth it?
Larry
Someone needs to explain to me why you’d high chop, leave uNDF in the field, and then need to buy straw to put into diet so there are adequate lbs of uNDF. Is not all uNDF (30 or 240) equal?
I think Ralph Ward has some data on high cut corn silage. I am not a fan of it but I would like to know what happens to NDFD (% of NDF) when chop height is increased. I think I will post a general comment about this on the “General Site” to see if anyone in industry might have an answer. Starch content (% DM) will definitely increase due to less dilution. Given this high yields that we are likely to see this year, I suspect this question will come up frequently.
I uploaded (I think it worked – Larry can check) an article by Wu and Roth The Pennsylvania University – Considerations in Managing Cutting Height of Corn Siilage – it’s a pretty comprehensive review but cites most work done in the early 2000 so not a lot of consideration of uNDF per se.
Go to the consultant files and enter “corn” in the search area to the right. It is there. I will work with Frank to make this more accessible.
errata The Pennsylvania State University (not U Penn)