by Courtney Duxbury
Dairy Nutritionist
Ag Partners held their dry down day to determine whole plant moistures in corn silage on September 5, with a goal of being 40-45 days after tasseling. We determined moistures to be quite high for chopping corn silage and recommend people wait for optimal moistures for their given forage storage system.
According to Ag Partners Forage Agronomist Greg Gustine, “There has been a low level of disease in corn plants this year, even those not treated with fungicide.” With healthy corn plants, they continue to absorb the recent rains we have gotten, increasing moistures, and delaying harvest even longer. “This has been the longest period from tasseling to chopping that I can remember” says John Baker, Ag Partners Dairy Nutritionist.
Ag Partner’s corn silage plot was harvested last Sunday, preliminary results suggest that moistures are dropping fast in this warmer weather. Starch contents seem to be average and fiber digestibility looks decent. More data will be available once analyzed.
In the Goodhue area, corn silage harvest is about 15% complete, with the rest of producers starting this week if weather cooperates. Corn silage in Southern Minnesota is almost all finished up, with many people achieving their goal for whole plant moistures. A few people that utilize stave silos will be finishing up within the week. In Western Wisconsin, areas of sandy soil have started harvest. Because of wet conditions and healthy plants that continue to uptake moistures, corn silage harvest has been delayed on better quality soils and will hopefully be going full swing this week.
