Hail Damage Affects Silage Corn Mark Antle Penn State Anyone who has ever seen the devastation a hailstorm can cause to a stand of corn knows that the potential for yield loss can be very high. In severe cases, a field of corn can be shredded beyond recognition some times to the point it looks more like a poor crop of bamboo in stead of a cornfield. Surprisingly, in other situa tions, the corn plant has the abil ity to recover and yield reasonably well. There are two primary factors that determine how much po tential yield loss has occurred due to hail damage. One of these factors is the amount of defolia tion the plant encounters. In the most severe cases, 100 percent of the leaves can be stripped off the plant. The other factor influenc ing the amount of yield loss is the growth stage of the corn when the hailstorm strikes. There has been a fair amount of research done documenting the effect hail damage has on grain yield, but not much is known about the yield and qual ity loss to corn harvested as silage. We have just completed the second year of a trial that Constant Food Angle* The GLEANER® R 52 rotary combine, with its 245-bushel standard bin capacity and 230 hp Cummins engine, gives you the technical edge of our Natural Flow processing The constant angle of feed to the processor means superior threshing and separating And moving material smoothly- instead of tossing and turning-protects your crop's final quality Come in for a closer look at the R 57, along with details on the exclusive GLEANER warranty. It covers your GLEANER combine from header to spreader for 2 years, with unlimited hours and no deductible There's really no smarter way to go *A GLEANER exclusive HERNLEY’S FARM EQUIPMENT, INC. Elizabethtown, PA 717-367-8867 • 1-800-564-2511 studied the effects of hail damage on corn silage. We hope _ . to determine how much loss oc- ro age 6 lon curred under the following con ditions: 100 percent defoliation at V 7 (7 leaf stage), VlO (10 leaf stage), silking and early dough; 50 percent defoliation at VlO, silking, and early dough; and 25 percent defoliation at silking and early dough. For the trial, a popular silage variety was planted in 30-inch rows at 32,000 seeds per acre. The hail damage was simulated in the trial by clipping off a por tion of the leaf area of each plant, corresponding with the percents defoliation and growth stages listed above. As one might expect, some of the plots showed severe losses in yield. When averaged over two years, the highest yield reduc tion (75 percent) occurred when the corn was 100 percent defoli ated at silking. These plots had no grain in the forage due to the severe stress at silking. The lowest yield loss over two years was nine percent and took place when silking corn was defoliated 25 percent. The table summa rizes the average yield losses over the various treatments in the study Natural How System With 360“ Of Separation* Go With The How. GLEANER* ‘(kycu netcion 'S ' r B. EQUIPMENT, INC. None V 7 100 VlO 50 VlO 100 Silking 25 Silking 50 Silking 100 Early Dough 25 Early Dough 50 Early Dough 100 Not surprisingly, there was a large difference in forage quality among the different treatments. The forage was analyzed for crude protein (CP), neutral de tergent fiber (NDF), neutral de tergent fiber digestibility (NDFd), starch, and ash. Some of the largest quality differences were with the 100 percent defoli ation treatment at silking. This treatment was significantly higher in CP, NDF and Ash, but lower in starch than all others. It is not surprising that this corn was ranked lowest in starch be cause it was completely stripped of its leaves at silking and there fore did not produce any grain. A summary of the quality analyses from the 2001 trial is shown in the table. l fnf/lnevmi Ft>r Bettti Returns ■ ■CO CtNANCI* C.J. WONSIDLER BROS. * Quakertown, PA New Tripoli, PA Oley, PA 215-536-7523 610-767-7611 610-987-6257 Waynesboro, PA %Forage Yield Reduction (2 Year Average; Distribution Auger System’ Acrclordtor Rolls’ Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 11, 2002-C5 Growth Stage % Defoliation CP None V 7 100 VIO 50 VlO 100 Silking 25 Silking 50 Silking 100 Early Dough 25 Early Dough 50 Early Dough 100 How does this information affect producers in our region? Probably the most important way a producer could be af fected is if a crop insurance ad juster needs make a fair estimate of yield losses because of hail damage. The estimates insurance companies have used for grain losses in the past may not be applicable to silage losses. Also, since a hailstorm can change forage quality in such a dramatic way, it would benefit livestock producers to have a rough idea of how their feeding Sterling Financial Forms New Affiliate LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.) Sterling Financial Cor poration (NASDAQ: SLFI), a Lancaster-based bank holding company with assets of more than $l.B billion, recently an- NDF NDFd Starch Ash 49 72 42 53 25 24 2 98 40 32 43 30 37 52 2 37 43 35 44 13 34 91 2 49 43 65 44 18 30 77 2 85 44 86 42 55 33 15 2 53 48 50 44 30 28 05 2 77 63 48 43 28 7 52 4 99 53 67 42 43 21 52 3 30 52 73 43 28 24 38 3 03 53 63 40 80 28 29 3 43 program might change if they have to feed a significant amount of hail damaged corn during the year. We plan to conduct a third year of this study in 2002. Our colleagues at the University of Wisconsin are conducting paral lel trials. At the end of the third year, we plan to summarize our findings and develop some guidelines for assessing the ef fects of hail damage on silage corn for producers and the hail insurance industry. nounced the formation of a new affiliate called Sterling Finan cial Trust Company. The move is aimed at offering unparalleled financial expertise in a way that sets a new standard for efficient and effective customer service. As of Jan. 1, the trust, invest ment, and fiduciary services pre viously spread among four separate Sterling-owned banks the Bank of Lancaster County, the Bank of Lebanon County, the Bank of Hanover, all in Pennsylvania, and the First National Bank of North East in Maryland were com bined into a single unit under Sterling Financial Trust Com pany. “We are concentrating and focusing the power of our expe rience and expertise into a single, high-performance organ ization,” said Gregory S. Le fever, president and CEO of Sterling Financial Trust Com pany. “We are achieving effi ciencies of scale that will result in better service and at the same time will create for us a stronger identity and presence in the marketplace.” The new company includes an investment services group to provide market research and analysis, professional invest ment management, and securi ties trading; a wealth management group to adminis ter trusts, estates, and guardian ships; a retirement services group to administer employee benefit and retirement plans; and a private banking group to serve the special needs of high net-worth customers. The creation of the region wide trust company is also viewed as a major step in en abling the individual banks in the Sterling Financial corporate family to serve their customers better and more completely. “This dramatically raises the level of service we can offer to our local customers,” said Tom Dautrich, president and chief operating officer of the Bank of Lancaster County. “We can give our customers access to what ever depth and breadth of ex pertise they need and do it within an existing relationship that they already trust and feel comfortable with.” Sterling Financial Trust Com pany serves customers in Adams, Lancaster, Lebanon, and York counties in Pennsylva nia and Cecil and Carroll coun ties in Maryland.
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