Corn Silage Harvest 2020

Forage Newsletter | September 2020

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Corn Dry Down Days Observations

Sarah spent the last two weeks of August working Corn Dry Down Days with Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Delaware County and South Central New York Dairy & Field Crops teams. She worked alongside John Winchell, Territory Sales Representative at Alltech, to offer corn silage dry matter values using the NIR4 Farm. Hear more about their observations and harvest outlook below.

Corn Silage Update

Sarah Fessenden, Dairy One Business Development Manager, Forage & Soils

John and I ran our NIR4 Farm units simultaneously and observed excellent agreement between the two, providing further evidence of the quality and robustness of the Dairy One calibrations used on these instruments.

The samples we analyzed ranged from 25% to 37% dry matter, with most measuring at approximately 30%. Harvest is fast approaching with most areas being a few days away from chopping while some areas have already started. The plants still appear green while the cobs are driving the overall dry matter. It is difficult to squeeze any milk out of the kernels, but there is no observable denting. My prediction for the year is that we will see fairly hard corn with decent digestibility and possibly lower starch content.

Considering the difficult hay harvest this year in the Northeast resulting in lower tonnage than desired, I’m hopeful for a corn silage that offers more digestible NDF pounds to the diet, if inventory allows. If the crop behaves more as a fiber forage than a starch forage, this might be a viable feeding strategy for some farms. At first glance, the plants look as though there is less lignification this year, with stalks that are thinner with more flexibility. While we were short on water for the growing season, this could lead to good NDF digestibility. Time will tell.

As always, if you have any comments or questions please email me at sarah.fessenden@dairyone.com

Corn Silage Update

John Winchell, PAS, Alltech Territory Sales Representative

I hope the season is finding you well. I have traveled the roads the last two weeks looking at corn silage in the Northeast. If you or your farms need some in depth assistance on corn silage harvest analytics, let me know. I still have some time open for some more corn silage burn down days.

We are progressing on corn silage #harvest2020 in the Northeast. For the most part, corn silage still has some time yet, but a few areas are in full swing. Some farms are feeling the urge to go early and will lose the starch potential that this season has given us.

I am seeing a separation of fields that are 30% whole plant dry matter and 30% starch, and fields that are 31% dry matter and 34-35 % starch. The latter will dry down at 0.75-1.0 % per day. The fields where the dry matter and starch are even will be the more traditional 0.5% per day. This is why whole plant dry matter is so important to monitor above milk line and visual appearance!

A few observations:

To date, for the 300+ samples chipped down, whole plant DM is averaging 30% with starch at 32%.
The record high GDD in the Northeast has put its stamp on some of the corn. Other areas have had ear fill issues from untimely dry spells. For the most part we are good.
Fields appear green from the road, but ears have lower moisture content, which will drive dry down.
Risk of custom harvesters opening up the processor if the field appears green will result in half nicked kernels.
Herds without a processor will start too late for the kernels.
Many places have time! Ten days to two weeks on corn that is at 30% DM.

Below is a good group of short podcasts from Cornell on silage harvest.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call me at 585-447-1468 or email at Jwinchell@alltech.com.

Cornell Podcasts

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