Source: Bill Weiss, OSU
The primary goal of making corn silage is to preserve as many nutrients in the corn plant as possible, to produce a feed that is acceptable to cows, and to minimize any risks associated with feeding the silage. The following are important considerations for making corn silage when growing conditions have been dry.
Chop at the correct dry matter concentration (Editor’s note: see accompanying article “Corn Silage Harvest Timing”). Drought-stressed corn plants are often much wetter than they appear, even if the lower plant leaves are brown and dried up. Before starting chopping, sample some plants (cut at the same height as they will be with the harvester) and either analyze DM using a Koster tester or microwave or send to a commercial lab (turn-around time may be a few days if you send it to a lab). If the plants are too wet, delay chopping until the desired plant DM is reached. The plant may continue to accumulate DM (increase yield), and you will not suffer increased fermentation losses caused by ensiling corn that is too wet.
Use a proven inoculant. When silage is worth upwards of $80/ton (35% DM) reducing shrink by 2 percentage units has a value of about $2/ton. Homolactic inoculants (these are the ‘standard silage inoculants’) produce lactic acid which reduces fermentation losses but sometimes can increase spoilage during feedout. The buchneri inoculants increase acetic acid which slightly increases fermentation losses but greatly reduce spoilage during feedout. Severely drought-stressed corn can have a high concentration of sugars because the plant is not depositing starch into the kernels. High sugar concentrations can increase spoilage at feed out because it is food source for yeasts and molds. Use of a good (from a reputable company with research showing efficacy) buchneri inoculant may be especially cost-effective with drought-stressed corn.
Check for nitrates. Drought-stressed corn plants can accumulate nitrates which are toxic (as in fatal) to ruminants. Silage from drought-stressed fields should be tested before it is fed. Ideally, corn plants should be sampled and assayed for nitrates prior to chopping (most labs offer very rapid turn-around times for a nitrate assay). If values are high, raising the cutting height will reduce nitrate concentrations in the silage because the bottom of the stalk usually has the highest nitrate concentrations. Because forage likely will be very limited this coming year, do not raise the cutting height unless necessary to reduce nitrate concentrations. Nitrate concentrations are often reduced during silage fermentation so that high nitrates in fresh corn plants may end up as acceptable concentrations in the fermented corn silage. Silage with more than 1.5% nitrate (0.35% nitrate-N) has a high risk of causing nitrate toxicity in cattle. See the following University of Wisconsin-Extension fact sheet for more details on nitrate toxicity: https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/forage/nitrate-poisoning-in-cattle-sheep-and-goats/
Chop at correct particle length. Do not chop too finely so that the effective fiber concentration of corn silage is reduced. If the corn plants have limited ear development, fine chopping is not needed for good starch digestibility. Generally, a theoretical length of cut (TLC) of about ½ inch is acceptable (longer with kernel processing and BMR silage) but this varies greatly between choppers and crop moisture concentration. If using a Penn State particle size sieve, aim for 5 to 10% on the top screen.
Use a kernel processor. Kernel processed corn silage tends to pack more densely than unprocessed corn silage which may help increase aerobic stability. Kernel processing will also increase starch digestibility by breaking the kernel. Poor starch digestibility is a major problem with dry, mature corn silage.
Reduce Shrink. Fill quickly, pack adequately, cover, and seal the silo as soon as you are done filling. Practicing good silage-making techniques can reduce shrink by more than 5 percentage units, which can be worth more than $4/ton of corn silage (35% DM).