Page 24—Com Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 19,1994 CORN SILAGE RESEARCH SURVEYS HYBRID EFFECTS Greg W. Roth Penn State Agronomy Assistant Professor Since 1991, the University of Wisconsin has been surveying adapted com hybrids for silage productivity and nutritive value. This project has been coordi nated by Dr. Jim Coors, a com breeder in the Department of Agronomy at Wisconsin. Recently, Dr. Coors reported on some of his findings to date at the 1994 Wisconsin Forage Council’s Forage Production and Use Symposium. The pro ject evaluated 30-40 early and late maturing hybrids at two locations during both 1991 and 1992. During both years of the study, there only was a weak relationship between grain yield and silage yield of com hybrids. This indicates that grain yield performance is not a good indicator of silage yield potential. In the early hybrid trial, for example, none of the top five grain yielding hybrids were in the top five for silage yield. This confirms the results of several other studies and jus tifies the need for separate hybrid evaluations for silage. Forage quality differences among hybrids varied from about 5 to 8 units for NDF and 2 R.K.|OJOGT 1225 Colcbrook Rd. BUYING EAR CORN, SHELLED CORN & WHEAT (717) 683-2510 1 (800) 654-2510 Spot or contract prices available EAR CORN FOR SALE DELIVERED TO THE FARM lo 4 units for in vitro digestibili ty. Differences among hybrids in the digestibility of cell walls ranged from 4 to 7 units. The project also evaluated quality characteristics in the stover part of the plants and found hybrid differences generally to be gre ater there. In general, the researchers found few relationships 5-Acre Corn Club (Continued from Pago 2) DeKalb 646; and third to Ken using Pioneer 3358; second to neth Schlegcl, Fleetwood, for a Thomas Pepper, Canton, for a 178.6 bushels/acre yield using 197.8 bushel/acre yield using Pioneer 3293. Herman Manbeck, Womelsdorf, right, accepts the first place award In the shelled grain class regular harvest size from Curt Rakestraw, secretary-treasurer of the Pennsylva nia Master Corn Growers Association. R A 1 -W Marietta, PA 17547 between yield and quality, which indicates that it should be possible to breed high yield ing hybrids that also have high quality. Many breeders have been concerned about the repeatabil ity of hybrid silage quality data. In this project, Coors measured repeatability of the yield and silage quality traits. He found that the repeatabilities for NDF and cell wall digestibility were similar to those for grain or sil age yield. This indicates that testing strategies, such as the number of field plots and reps required for these traits should be similar to those used for grain yield evaluation. This study indicates that breeding hybrids for improved silage quality appears to be pos sible, since variation exists in current germplasm and there do not appear to be yield losses associated with improved qual ity trails. m In the 3 acre+ harvest size class, shelled grain, from Curt Rakestraw, secretary-treasurer of the Pennsylvania Master Corn Growers Association. Ed Snook, Jersey Shore, right, accepts the third place award from the shelled grain class regular harvest size from Curt Rakestraw, secretary-treasurer of the Pennsylvania Master Corn Growers Association. D. Richard Snyder, Montoursvllle, right, accepts the first place award in the 3 acre+ harvest size shelled grain class from Curt Rakestraw, secretary-treasurer of the Pennsylva nia Master Corn Growers Association. .'ll
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