Page 26—Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 14, 2000
Interdisciplinary Research To
Improve Quality Corn Silage
UNIVERSITY PARK
(Centre Co.) “When I
started at Penn State in
1989,” said Greg Roth, asso
ciate professor of agronomy.”
corn wasn’t managed specifi
cally for silage. People often
used corn that didn’t fare too
well for silage.
But since then, producers
have begun to realize that the
yield and quality of silage can
be an important factor in the
profitability of their farming
enterprise. There’s a nation
wide trend toward increasing
silage in feed, especially at
larger dairies, so the silage
quality is becoming more im
portant.”
Now, after more than a
decade of research and exten
sion education on silage qual
ity, “We have started
producers thinking about the
kinds of things that influence
silage quality,” said Roth.
“On a 100 cow dairy, im
proved silage quality can in
crease milk production by
about $lO,OOO per year.
Farmers now recognize that
silage is a high value crop.
Making producers aware of
these issues allows them to
remain competitive in the
marketplace.”
Roth’s work in this area
began when farmers started
to ask whether certain hy-
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brids were better than others
for producing silage and
about harvesting recommen
dations. He and his research
team, including research sup
port technologist Mark Antle,
studied the timing of harvest
for optimal silage quality and
found that yield and quality
decrease if the corn is allowed
to mature for too long. They
recommend harvesting when
the kernel moisture content is
between 63 and 70 percent, a
measurement producers can
make themselves.
In 1994, Roth worked with
several county agents to ex
amine the effect of using nar
rower rows and higher per
acre plant populations for
silage corn than was tradi
tional for grain corn. They
found that narrower rows
measuring 15 to 20-inches
wide boosted the yield by
about five percent over con
ventional row spacing (30-
inches wide), producing an
additional ton of silage per
acre.
They also found that opti
mum yield was obtained by
planting 30,000 to 32,000
plants per acre. This allowed
an additional five percent in
crease in yield over tradition
ally recommended plant
populations in corn for grain.
By combining the nar-
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rower row spacing with the
increased plant populations,
producers could increase
their yields by about 10 per
cent.
Roth’s team found that
row spacing had no effect on
the quality of the silage. They
did find, however, that silage
quality decreased as the plant
population increased, but
some of this loss of quality
was offset by the increased
yield.
In the mid-19905, seed
companies introduced silage
only corn hybrids, and Roth
began evaluating those for
producers. He found that
many hybrids do well in
narrow row, high population
management programs.
Roth worked with Dick
Fox, professor of soil science,
and Bill Piekielek, research
support associate, to deter
mine optimum nitrogen rates
for silage hybrids. They
found that the economic opti
mum nitrogen rate was 20-
pounds nitrogen per acre
higher for silage corn than
that recommended for grain
corn, because the protein
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content of the silage and its
value increase as the nitrogen
rate increases.
Roth has been working for
several years with Jud Hein
richs, professor of dairy and
animal science, and Dennis
Buckmaster, associate pro
fessor of agricultural engi
neering, to further refine
knowledge about silage qual
ity. “In the past 10 years,”
said Roth, “we’ve seen a
great increase in the sophisti
cation of analysis methods
that people are considering to
characterize silage crops.”
With Heinrichs, Roth is
evaluating the effects of corn
silage particle size on cow
health. To maintain the
health of a dairy cow’s
rumen, the diet must contain
food particles of a variety of
sizes.
If too much of the food is
finely chopped, the rumen
will produce too much acid
and the cow will have to be
culled from the herd.
About four years ago,
Heinrichs and Buckmaster
developed a sieving device to
determine the particle size of
CONTACT
mixed rations, including
silage, so that producers can
feed a size-balanced ration.
“Now virtually all the forage
analysis labs and feed compa
nies and many farmers have
one of these sieves and use it
to measure the forage particle
size,” said Heinrichs. “It
allows them to do a better job
of ration balancing,” which is
very closely tied to herd
health and profitability.
Heinrichs, Roth, and
Buckmaster are developing a
physical effective fiber index
that would be applied to
silage and other forages to
describe both the chemical
and physical components
including particle size of
the fiber present. The index
would allow a farmer to
know how the forage will
affect a cow’s digestion with
out conducting expensive,
time-consuming feeding
trials. Heinrichs and Roth
hope over the next few years
to test the index on many
varieties and cuts of forage in
the field.
Roth and Buckmaster are
Phone
.717-486-7311
.570-799-0769
.717-263-2592
.570-275-1738
.570-275-1343
.814-334-5281
.717-933-8211,
.717-242-3712.
570-966-3947,
.800-248-4418.
717-589-7676.
.800-258-6689.
.570-546-3117.
570-538-1170.
888-567-6556
814-237-2339.
570-649-5579
215-766-9325.
(Turn to Page 27)
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