Joe Lawrence, Allison Kerwin and Tom Overton share insights on what to expect from this year’s corn silage in a Forage Management fact sheet.
As 2018 corn silage sits in storage, hopefully fermenting for the next few months before being fed out, it is helpful to understand how this crop might feed compared to 2017. Using the New York and Vermont Corn Silage Hybrid Evaluation program as an indicator of corn silage performance gives us some idea of average performance. Data for the detailed hybrid-specific report of the trials is still being processed but we do have enough information to look at overall performance trends.
Keep in mind this is an average of certain locations in the region and your conditions may vary. On your own farm it is helpful to take samples of your forage at harvest and prior to feed-out to understand the opportunities and challenges as you begin to feed this year’s crop. We also need to remember that while fresh samples can be a helpful indicator, some characteristics of the forage will change during fermentation, particularly starch digestibility.”
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