Page 44—Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 13, 1993
Research
Advantages
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
REISTVILLE (Lebanon
Co.) Waxy com is apparently
getting a new look by some people
after being put on the back shelf for
a number of years with regards to
use as livestock feed.
A few different universities are
in the process of investigating the
100 percent amylopectin strain of
maize as to its feed and nutritional
appropriateness for livestock.
However, except for one report
on a study done in the Midwest on
hogs, no data, save farmer testimo
nials, is readily available on the
benefit of feeding 100 percent
amylopectin, versus the current
use of feeding normal dent com,
which is 75 percent amylopectin
and 25 percent amylose.
Research on plant pectins is
ongoing at Cornell by graduate
student Mary Beth Rymph, who is
doing the work as part of her pur
suit of a doctorate degree.
However, Rymph said that the name “amy
lopectin” is a misnomer. She said it is not a
true pectin, but really a starch. She also said
that there is great lack in information about
amylopectin as it is digested by cattle.
Pectins have some hope, however. She said
that it has been found that the digestion of pec
tins is apparently fast and produces no lactic
acid, which could eventually earn it a place in
a research-supported recommended diet for
high producing dairy cattle.
“Amylopectin is a bad name,” she said. “It
really is another starch.”
Amylose is a sugar, or starch, which occurs
in a straight molecular chain. Amylopectin is
a multi-branched chain starch.
Rymph said she started out researching
starches, then switched to pectins, which most
people arc familiar with in making jam and
jelly, but also used in some glues, etc.
She is currently looking at pectins pro
duced by alfalfa.
While she said she couldn’t guess how long
it might be until adequate information on pec
uns is available, the same is true of most non
structural elements of dairy feed.
“We need a lot more information, plus an
assay on it and other feeds,” she said, adding
that there is currently a lack of an inexpensive,
quick, and reliable method for testing of pec
tins and starches in the rumen. Thai’s being
worked on too.
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Of Waxy Corn
But that doesn’t mean that
nothing has changed from 1990
when the status of waxy com was
reported as being improved in
yields to almost equal to yellow
dent.
At that time, though crop yields
were up to where they are now
about equal to regular dent
there were no studies to validate
any farmer and seed company
claims that waxy corn had an
advantage over yellow dent.
A lack of scientific data to sup
port those claims doesn’t mean
that those providing testimonial
evidence are not truthful.
What it means is, the lack of
objective control over all influ
ences on any herd makes any claim
about a product, either in support
or against, invalid.
In other words, when a decision
to change a ration is based on testi
monial evidence alone, there arc
no guarantees and the risk of
damaging existing milk produc
tion is higher than with researched
and substantiated claims.
However, a number of salesmen
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seed and soil-amendments pro
ducts company are promoting
some varieties of waxy com and,
on the basis of testimonials, arc
claiming higher yields, better
acceptance by cattle and swine,
and better feed conversion.
Results of one recently com
pleted feed trial study at the
Unvicrsity of Wisconsin, shows a
maximum 10 percent advantage to
using waxy com over yellow dent
for feed efficiency and a high of
8.9 percent advantage in daily
weight gain.
Devon Howe, salesman for
PARS Inc., Elizabethtown, in a let
ter said that the data which univer
sities, such as Penn State, arc pul
ling out is based on trials with old
varieties of waxy corn, not with the
varieties developed by Custom
Farm Seed, based in Illinois.
Thai’s the brand he and his area
farmer-dealers promote.
Howe said lhatCFS has spent 20
years developing hybrids for the
industrial starch business (it used
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in various powders, etc.). He has
pointed out a Wisconsin hog study
as evidence of the advantage of
CFS waxy corn.
No other research is available to
support Howe’s claims of an
advantage.
Gary Apcl, CFS director of
agronomy services, also cited the
University of Wisconsin hog
study, which showed a slight
advantage over a variety of dent.
As far as its use in dairy animals,
Apcl could not point to substantive
research, but said he had a number
of dairymen who were willing to
provide strong testimonials as to
us benefit on their herd’s
production.
Their is currently some trial
work being done at Wisconsin
with dairy cattle, but both profes
sors actively involved were
unavailable for comment, one was
out of state and not due back for
some time and the other was out of
the country and also not due back
soon.
Paul Carter, agronomy profes
sor at University of Wisconsin’s
College of Agricultural and Life
Sciences, and with its extension
program, recently wrote on waxy
corn.
Carter said in the article that,
other than the percentage of amy
lopectin, the chemical constituents
of waxy com are similar to those in
yellow dent. In other words, the
varieties are currently not 100 far
apart in makeup and
characteristics.
“Because com hybrids have
often been on the market for sever
al years before seed companies
change the genetic make-up of
normal hybrids to include the
waxy gene, many waxy hybrids
are older than the newest normal
hybrids and consequently may
have lower yield potential,” Carter
wrote.
“Growers must isolate fields to
prevent pollen contamination from
normal com.
“Some feeding trials suggest
that finishing lambs, pigs and beef
have slightly greater feed efficien
cies and average daily weight
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