Galen Erickson (Short Presentation)
Eric Buck
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08/01/2024
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Steps to Success: Enhancing Silage Quality Through Timing Considerations
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- [00:00:00.000]As part of the silage for beef conference that we've hosted, we think that one of the
- [00:00:11.120]most critical issues facing silage producers and beef producers is when should they put
- [00:00:19.460]up silage?
- [00:00:20.460]What's the optimum timing?
- [00:00:22.640]And that's actually quite a difficult question, and so that was my real focus here is what
- [00:00:30.220]does the data say on when is it optimum to harvest?
- [00:00:34.040]But one of the things that's critical to understand is that even if I say harvest silage at this
- [00:00:38.360]dry matter, I think we need better tools to predict that for corn that's standing in the
- [00:00:44.880]field.
- [00:00:47.160]All that said, most people understand that silage is harvested between, usually probably
- [00:00:52.620]30% dry matter up to 40% dry matter, maybe in some cases 45%, which then obviously many
- [00:01:01.620]producers also think moisture, which is obviously then 60% to 70% moisture.
- [00:01:07.500]Given that there wasn't a lot of information out in the available to help producers make
- [00:01:12.380]that decision, we decided, well we'll try and put up, do a study and compare two different
- [00:01:18.220]silages put up at different moistures.
- [00:01:20.680]So we looked at...
- [00:01:22.600]Really two moistures of silage, one on the left is 37% dry matter, and one on the right
- [00:01:28.440]was 43% dry matter.
- [00:01:30.660]And there's a lot of different nutrient analysis of course that we can do, and eventually we
- [00:01:35.240]went to feed these, but one of the key things I think to look at in this table is the fiber
- [00:01:41.880]content goes down, which is measured in the NDF and ADF, as we get to drier silage.
- [00:01:49.120]But of course starch goes up, because one of the key things that's changing during
- [00:01:52.580]this drying process while that corn is maturing is there's changes happening in the forage
- [00:01:58.240]component of the plant, and then obviously the ear and the grain are changing, and the
- [00:02:02.700]grain is filling.
- [00:02:03.700]So those are some of the key things.
- [00:02:05.220]Other than that, the silage was put up well, all the indicators look like silage was harvested
- [00:02:09.920]well, and the lactic acid and pH look good.
- [00:02:14.620]One thing that's critical though is that with drier silage, it has to be put up well,
- [00:02:19.440]and in many cases, drier silage is difficult to put up.
- [00:02:22.560]So, in this study, to avoid any of those concerns, we bagged it.
- [00:02:29.300]So what did we do?
- [00:02:30.380]We fed it then.
- [00:02:31.680]We really fed it in three different applications, and in concept, it's pretty straightforward.
- [00:02:38.360]We fed it either 15% of the diet, 45% of the diet, or we did a growing study with growing
- [00:02:45.160]calves and fed it at 88% of the diet.
- [00:02:48.300]And why did we do that?
- [00:02:49.600]Well, because silage can be used as a roughage in feedlot cattle.
- [00:02:52.540]can be used as a growing diet for background
- [00:02:56.240]in calves, so high inclusions, and then we want to look at something in between because
- [00:03:00.430]we think silage is economical, but maybe even more economical if we feed more than traditional
- [00:03:06.490]levels as roughage.
- [00:03:08.170]So in this table, we have on the left silage that was fed at 15%, but it was either the
- [00:03:17.690]37% dry matter silage or the 43% dry matter silage, and then on the right is when it was
- [00:03:24.290]45% of the diet and fed at 37% or 43% dry matter.
- [00:03:30.490]And from this trial that we did here at the University of Nebraska, there's really no
- [00:03:35.750]effect of feeding 37% or 43% on how cattle eat, how they gain, or what their conversions
- [00:03:42.670]were.
- [00:03:43.670]Obviously feeding 45% silage in place of grain did decrease average daily gain and conversion,
- [00:03:50.730]but within those inclusions, there was no difference.
- [00:03:54.170]Lastly, we did a growing study and really high inclusion of silage, a very typical growing
- [00:04:03.170]diet.
- [00:04:04.170]In this case, the drier silage was actually a little poorer than the 37% dry matter, or
- [00:04:10.290]if you want to think about it in moisture, 63% moisture.
- [00:04:13.390]So drier silage may not affect feedlot cattle as much, but certainly could affect growing
- [00:04:18.910]cattle.
- [00:04:19.910]Plus, I would argue 43% dry matter silage is probably a little harder to get to pack
- [00:04:24.050]well.
- [00:04:25.490]So all that said, we've discussed things and have a lot of, I think, experience and information
- [00:04:31.230]out that people have contributed on how the plant changes during this progression towards
- [00:04:39.130]maturity or black layer.
- [00:04:42.170]Some key conclusions we've found is that really at silage, we're talking about plants that
- [00:04:48.510]have 50% to 52% of their weight is grain, that when we harvest green chop and
- [00:04:53.930]put it up as silage, it ends up getting a little wetter after the fermentation process.
- [00:04:59.990]But fiber, while that plant's maturing, tends to stay pretty level.
- [00:05:07.490]So we measure NDF stays pretty constant, but digestibility gets poorer, but grain content's
- [00:05:12.350]going up.
- [00:05:13.350]So there's quite a bit of change happening even when you see that corn standing out in
- [00:05:17.090]the field.
- [00:05:18.090]All that said, our recommendation is that if you target 37%, 38%, 40%, 50% of the grain
- [00:05:23.810]content, 38% dry matter, which would be 62% or 63% moisture, we think you'll be optimizing
- [00:05:31.210]the nutrient content of the silage, optimizing yield, and not have any problems with fermentation
- [00:05:37.270]and storage.
- [00:05:38.390]So that's easy to recommend.
- [00:05:41.210]Now I think we need to work on developing tools that you can use to actually measure
- [00:05:45.930]that and monitor that in the field.
- [00:05:47.530]Thank you.
- [00:05:48.710]Thank you.
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