F6-Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 1,2003
Hybrid Test Reports
(Continued from Page F 4)
Pennsylvania Corn Silage Hybrid Evaluation Report
In 2002 a new program to evaluate both (he yield and forage quality of commercial com hybrids offered
to Pennsylvania com silage producers was initiated This program is a collaborative effort among Penn
State the Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania and Forage Data Inc The objective of the
program is to evaluate com hybrids and provide unbiased information to producers and the seed industry
on the yield performance and forage quality of com hvbnds for silage production in Pennsylvania
The tests were conducted at three locations in Pennsylvania Red Knob Farm in Peach Bottom in
Lancaster Countv. Slate Ridge Dairy in St Thomas m Franklin County and the Penn State Russell
Larson Research Farm in Rock Spring, Centre County Two maturity groups of hybrids were evaluated
at each location these trials Each group was limited to a 5-day relative maturity (RM) range The early
group consisted of 107 II) day RM hybrids and the late group consisted of 1) 2-116 day RM hybrids
Our original intent was to plant all of the evaluation tests on commercial dairy farms, but planting
problems related to the wet spring forced us to use a back up site at the Penn State Research I arm Our
goal in these trials is to evaluate nyhnd performance over multiple sites and conditions as this is always
the best indicator of a hybrids future performance
Procedures
This testing program was open to ail hybrid seed com producers in the state Hvbnds were planted in
paired row plots equal to I 500 ol an acre I ach hybrid was replicated three times at each location
Phntmg was done with a vacuum precision planter which minimized the number of plants needed to be
removed to obtain a final population of 28 000 plants per acre the planter was set to drop 10 kernels
per row When the com was 12 to 18 inches tall extra plants primarily doubles and end plants were
removed to reach to Ima! population
Prior to harvest the dry matter concentration of several hybrids in each lest was monitored and the
harvests were targeted to achieve drv matter concentrations of 10 to 35% dry matter Rapid drvdown
caused bv the drv conditions resulted in the Franklin test ami ihc early hybrids at Lancaster to be slightly
drier than desired All hybrids in each group were harvested on the same day At Rock Springs the
harvest of the late group was seven days later than the carlv group At the other two locations both
groups were harvested on the same day Because of the hot dry conditions, harvest was early at alt
locations August 21 at Franklin August 22 at Lam.asitr September 4 for the early hvbnds m Centre
and September 11 for the late hvbnds in C emre County Plots were harvested with a single row custom
designed forage chopper One row was harvested from each plot The forage from each plot was
weighed and then thoroughly mixed Harvest samples were collected from the mixed chopped silage in
the field
Al harvest samples were collected immediately after the plot was harvested chilled on dry ice, and then
frozen at the end of the day Samples were (hen sent to the [)airv One forage Lab in Ithaca NY for
analysis The samples were analyzed for crude protein acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent
fibcrlNDFi starch sugars noi> fiber carbohydrates (NFC) ash fat. lignin 30 hour in vitro true
digestibility (IVTD) 30 hour fiber digestibility (NDFD) ncutnl detergent insoluble crude protein
(NDKP) and lignin These results were used to calculate the Vl tnergy for hctation (NFI) Milk
yield per ton and milk yield per acre were then estimated from the CP NDF NDFD, starch, ash NDICP
and vield using the Milk 2000 (version 7 4) spreadsheet from the University of Wisconsin
Weather Website
Provides Crop
Production Insight
Mark Antle
Penn State
For those of you who like review recent
weather information in your area, you
might want to visit the Pennsylvania State
Climatologist Website at http://
pasc.met.psu.edu/PA—Climatologist/
cityform.html.
This site provides not only recent weather
data but historical information back as far
as the early 19605, in some cases. Once on
the Website, you can view weather data
from one of more than SO locations through
out Pennsylvania. Some of these locations
even provide climatic conditions on an
hourly basis.
One way this site became useful to us was
during the spring of 2002. The later half of
May was extremely cold in some places, and
many growers were worried about their com
crop.
At Penn State’s Agronomy Research
Farm in Centre County, some of the corn
was at the V2-V3 stage and had experienced
three consecutive nights of 28-degree tem
perature. The com was uniformly frosted to
ground level and the concern was that the
com would not recover, even though com
often exhibits a remarkable ability to bounce
back after a frost.
Hourly weather data from the State Cli
matologist site indicated that the low tem
peratures of 28 degrees Fahrenheit (F)
lasted for less than two hours each night.
One theory is that the temperature needs to
stay below 28 degrees F for four continuous
hours to kill young com plants. Since the
com survived with only minimal stand loss,
the information from the State Climatolog
ist Website helped support this theory and
ultimately will help in evaluating early sea
son frost damage in the future.
Lancaster Farming
Check out our Website!
www.lancasterfarmina.com
All data was anal wed with analysis of variance procedures and least significant diflercncc (LSD) values
were calculated at the 010 level for each variable where the differences were statistically significant
When the difference between two hybrids exceeds the LSD (010) level, there is a 90% probability that
ihe difference is not due to random variation Small differences that are less than the LSD value may be
the result of random variation that occurs in these field trials We also calculated a coefficient of
vanation (LV) for each variable This is a relative measure of the uncontrolled variation associated with
that unable m (hat test For yield, aCV of 10% or less is usually considered good For the tests that
were combined over locations, we tested tor a hybnd-by- location interaction Where a hybnd-by
locatiun inunction is significant this indicates that hybrid performance was not consistent across the
locations toi that variable
Results
Conditions at each ol the three sites were abnormally hot and dry At the Franklin County location,
conditions were exceptionally dry resulting in com that was approximately six feet tall with little ear
development At the other two locations, plant height was less than average with ear development
average to below average Because the Franklin County site was so severely stressed, it was not included
in the combined analyses avenges When evaluating hybrids for silage or gram, it is always best to rely
on multilocation averages if possible, not on the data from a single site
'arlv Hvbnd Tests
Combined Analysis
Analysts of (he combined data from the Centre and Lancaster Countv sites are shown m Table 1
Hybrids v,tried in dry matter concentration at harvest b> approximately 10 percentage units This could
have an impact on forage quality traits Hybrids with higher dry matter concentrations arc likely earlier
in maturity Ideally hybrid comparisons should be made within a3to 4 percentage point range m dry
matter to minimize maturity effects
The combined analyses indicated that for many of the variables the hybrid by-tocation interaction was
significant Tins indicates that hybrid performance was different in Centre and Lancaster County This
may have resulted because the backup Centre County bcation was a shorter season area than tbe
I ancastcr site The original Centre County on- farm site was m a longer season area As a result, despite
our intentions to use combined data, the results suggest that this year for most variables, hybrid
evaluations are best made at the individual sites for the early group Producers should decide which site
is more representative of their conditions and use that as a guide m interpreting the data For some of
the forage quality variables without hybnd-by- location interactions (NS), like NEI, IVTD, NDFD, and
Milk/ton thrrcsults were consistent across sites, with significant differences occurring among hybrids
Lancaster C ounty
At (his sue (Table 2) we encountered a wide range in dry matter concentration and the average dry
matter concentration was slightly higher than our target of 35% dry matter These hybrids dried down
much more rapidly than anticipated during the hot diy conditions of late August Yields at this site were
about 60% of expected values and differences among the hybrids were not significant Many of the
quality traits exhibited differences among the hybrids Daily One average values m 2001 for NDF,
Siarchand NDFD were 44 7%, 30 5%, and 55 7%, respectively Relative to those values, hybrids at this
site had lower NDF, higher starch and slightly lower NDFD (han average
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Centre County
At this site (Table 1), the range m dry milter concentrations was less than at Lancaster, but the dry
matter concentration were also lower than Lancaster as well Yields were approximately 65% of
average yields at this site V idd differences were not significantly different here as w ell, probably
because one of the three replications had to be discard because of early season flooding Many of the
quality traits exhibited different among the hybrids Milk/ton and Milk.acre differences existed among
the hybrids Relative to the average Dairy One values, hybrids at this Mte had lower NDF similar starch
and slightly lower NDhD than average
Franklin Countv
Dry matter concentrations at (his site (Table 4) also tended to be higher than desired and hybrids here
also exhibited a wide range in dry matter concentrations at harvest Significant differences existed
among hybrids tor most of the traits measured here As expected. NDF levels were higher than the
Dairy One average starch was lower and NDFD slightly above average Despite the drought stress, the
average energy content ol this com predicted using the NEI was sue was 92% of the average of the
other sites and the estimated milk/ton was 96% of the average of the other two sites Since this site was
extremely drought stressed the results from this trial may only have limited value in predicting future
performance at this location
ate Hybrid Tests
Combined Analyses
The late hybnd combined data analysis (Table 5) also showed significant hybnd-by location interactions
for nearly every variable, similar to the situation with the early hybnd group This interaction indicates
that at least some hybrids performed differently at the two locations After viewing a hybrids
performance m this (able, it would be wise to see if it performed similarly at the two locations Often
hybrids with above average yields or forage quality at one location also had above average data at the
other location It is interesting to note that the late hybnd group yields were not greater than the early
group (Table I) as is often the case This was likely due to the late season stress that occurred during
this season
Lancaster County
Hybrids at this site exhibited a wide range in dry matter concentration, but the bulk of the hybrids were
m the 32 to 37 % range Significant differences existed for all traits measured Large ranges in yield.
NDFD, Milk/ton and Mtlk/acre were evident This test had the highest average Milk/ton and NDFD
ratings of all the 2002 tests Relative to the average Dany One values, hybrids hybrids at this site had
lower NDF, higher starch and higher NDFD concentrations
Centre County
Hybrids had a similar wide range of dry mater concentrations (Table 7) here as at the Lancaster site
Significant differences occurred for most variables except yield, hgmn and Milk/acre These were likely
not significant because one of the three replications had to be discarded at this location For some
hybrids, yield and forage quality performance was consistent with the Lancaster location, for others it
was not Similar results were obtained in a 2001 Cornell test located at the following web address
(http //www css Cornell edu/extension/NewYorkComSilageHvbndTests2ool odfl
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