Corn silage is such piece in your ration. Much work has been done by corn breeders to create the most ideal plant with high yields, digestible forage AND starch to support lactation. This month we talk with Dr. José Varela and feature a foundational silage project he and his team worked on at the University of Wisconsin to better understand specifically how zein proteins around corn starch particles change overtime when fermented.

Corn breeders throughout the Land Grant University system collaborate and work hard to ensure the next line of genetically superior forage will perform on your operation - but genetics can only go so far. Silage inventory management ensures that the perfect alignment of fully fermented feed for your herd.

This project studied the differences in nutrient availability between 0, 1, 2, 4 & 8 months of fermentation. Listen in to best understand the risks of feeding green chop.

This timely topic is released while many dairies are in the field, or having just finished up with harvest. Take a listen in to best understand the value gained towards improving starch availability for your herd.

These findings were published in the Journal of Dairy Science featured article titled, “Effect of Endosperm Type and Storage Length of Whole Plant Corn Silage on Nitrogen Fraction, Fermentation Products, Zein Profile and Starch Digestibility” Open access, available for download.

Topics of discussion

1:51 Introduction of Dr. Varela

4:00 Kernel Research – Starch matrix

4:54 Description of the corn anatomy

5:30 Three major structures of the kernel

7:11 Vitreousness of the corn kernel

7:45 Role of land grants in research

8:41 Improving the kernel endosperm could also have agronomic flaws

9:58 The process of plot research – self vs cross fertilization to study kernel change  

12:19 Chopping silage

12:33 Fermentation over time

13:17 How did the silage change over time

14:08 Results

15:28 α-zeins break down during fermentation

16:03 Figure 2

16:30 Feeding Green Chop

18:42 Drought and high temperatures

21:05 Silage analysis

22:17 Invitro starch digestibility: vitreousness or α-zeins?

23:53 What would you like boots on the ground to know about your research project?

25:17 Forage inventory – make a plan

26:26 Inoculate with protease?  

#2xAg2030; #journalofdairyscience; @jdairyscience; #openaccess; #MODAIRY; #protease; #landgrantresearch; #cornsilage, #starch; #milkyieldperacre; #agronomics, #dairysciencedigest; #ReaganBluel

https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(23)00558-1/pdf