Corn Silage
Hybrids…...picking the winners so you won’t be a loser Mike
Rankin As little as 10 years ago, corn silage hybrids were selected on the premise that a top performing grain hybrid equated to a top silage hybrid. At that time there was precious little corn silage performance data available and many producers didn’t know how the crop would be harvested until growing season’s end. Today, corn hybrids are routinely tested for silage characteristics (both yield and quality) by the public and private sectors and many dairy producers plant corn for the sole purpose of harvesting a silage crop. All of this has led to more emphasis being placed on corn silage hybrid development and selection. It has also led to a vast array of opinions on how selections need to be made. Corn silage hybrid selection basics Before beginning, there are some points that need to be known. This will make the whole process easier. These points are: · Prepare to be frustrated, especially if you listen or talk to more than one seed company representative or university employee. · Making a decision on 1-year, 1-location data is like getting married after the first date. Likely, you’ll make a wrong decision. Think of locations as environments rather than locations and analyze data from a lot of environments. · Prepare to encounter yield x quality tradeoffs. No hybrid to date has been #1 in both categories but some are well above average on both counts. · Significant differences exist for both yield and quality among corn hybrids. The key is to locate and capitalize on these differences! · Predicting corn silage quality factors not related to harvest time whole plant moisture or cutting height starts and ends with hybrid selection. How are companies attempting to improve corn silage hybrid performance? The laundry list of traits that must be taken into account when selecting a corn silage hybrid is growing larger with each passing year as new characteristics are identified or old traits are more accurately measured. Traits currently available to ruminate over are as follows:
Corn breeders have attempted to improve corn silage quality at several different fronts. These are: 1. Improve digestibility of the forage “pool” Inserting the brown mid-rib (bmr) mutant is the extreme example. Currently, no normal corn hybrids can match bmr hybrids for forage (NDF) digestibility. However, plant breeders have been successful selecting for silage hybrids that are consistently above average for forage digestibility but don’t have the bmr trait. 2. Improved kernel texture for higher starch availability 3. Maintaining a large “yellow” energy pool Increased grain yield is still an effective method to maintain high whole plant energy levels. 4. Some combination of the above Combining all of the above along with high yield will likely result in the best corn silage hybrids of the future. It’s significant to note that simply putting more leaves on a corn plant does not necessarily lead to improved quality and may actually be detrimental. Which would you pick? Given the following data from the 2002 UW Corn Silage Performance trials, which one or two hybrids would you select? I posed this question to a number of agronomists, feed consultants, and farmers on an Internet silage list-serve to see how the industry valued different traits. Below are the data and some responses:
Some responses: · “I would choose hybrid E.” · “I would select G because of highest value of milk/acre.” · “I’d go with E and F, which combine yield and quality.” · “I would choose hybrid F….but given the right circumstances you could make a case for D.” · “F solely for milking cows….G for replacements.” · “If the goal is to have the highest milk production possible at any cost, the choice is D.” · “If A and C were dairy bulls, their throats would be cut at a young age.“ Most voters chose hybrids E or F, two hybrids that were not the “top” hybrid in any of the categories. It all comes down to trade-offs, which we will explore further in Part II.
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