In many regions, corn silage harvest is delayed by weeks, which forces producers to decide: Harvest wet, immature corn, or delay and take a risk on the weather.
“Producers may have to get their crop in when they can,” says Dr. Bob Charley, forage products manager with Lallemand Animal Nutrition.
“Delay may risk running up against wetter fall weather, making the ground too wet. Harvesting at the right stage of maturity is the overriding factor in producing high-quality silage, but Mother Nature doesn’t always provide the perfect window of opportunity.”
When harvesting low dry matter (DM) corn, Dr. Charley recommends adding a research-proven silage inoculant to reduce losses and increase digestibility.
For crops below 30 percent DM (or above 70 percent moisture), a research-proven homolactic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) inoculant containing strains like Pediococcus pentosaceus 12455 can help achieve a fast front-end fermentation.
For immature crops harvested above 30 percent DM, producers should consider a combination inoculant like those containing homolactic LAB strains plus selected heterofermentative strains proven to benefit silage management. Dr. Charley also advises producers harvesting immature corn for silage to forgo further processing when the crop is below 30 percent DM.
“There is no benefit to processing wet corn silage. It requires extra input costs and takes a toll on equipment unnecessarily. In fact, processing at high moisture levels can increase the risk of silage runoff,” Dr. Charley says. “With these changes, producers can still create high-quality silage even when harvest options aren’t perfect.”
