US livestock specialist talks on corn silage as animal feed

December 30, 2013

US livestock specialist talks on corn silage as animal feed

John Dhuyvetter, NDSU''s North Central Research Extension Centre area extension livestock specialist spoke to producers at a recent Backgrounding Cattle 2013 workshop on corn silage as "king of forages" and one of the most predominate forage crops used to feed cattle.

Three years ago, producers were in a situation where corn was getting expensive yet calf prices were also high. At the same time, there was plenty of cheap hay and other forages, he said.

Cattle prices started out relatively high and corn was really peaking at a high price. As corn prices continued to climb higher, the hay market also grew and hay prices doubled.

Over the year, the cattle market dropped off and there wasn''t a lot of money to make from steer calves, Dhuyvetter said, adding some producers actually lost money backgrounding. In latter 2013, grain prices were dropping and hay prices were becoming more normalised, he said.

The number of livestock producers using corn silage and grain crops that might not make it to market to feed their calves is increasing, he said.

While it can be expensive, corn silage has some advantages over other feeds, Dhuyvetter said. One major advantage is corn silage has 60% more nutrients in it than just feeding grain alone, so it can produce that two-pound weight per day of gain, along with some supplementation. It is also a very versatile as well as popular feed, he said.

Corn silage is highly-digestible forage, but is more of a medium-energy feed than a typical forage feed, Dhuyvetter said. In Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN), corn silage runs about 72%, while most hays are around 50-60%, and grains run in the mid-70s-90s, he said. Corn silage is a little low in protein, seldom exceeding 10%, and also has some calcium and phosphorus in it, he said. For growing calves, feeding corn silage will require a mineral supplement, too, he added.

He also said generally there is not a problem with toxicity with feeding it, adding the only problem is during drought, corn silage can accumulate nitrates and should be lab tested for it, in that case.

In looking at the economics of corn silage, it costs an average of US$351 an acre to raise about 15 tonnes of corn silage, according to an NDSU 2013 crop budget. That included such costs as seed, herbicide, fertiliser, fuels, repairs, insurance and miscellaneous, excluding drying because silage is not dried.

Corn silage has the advantage of a very short harvest season, but it takes a lot of people and equipment to bring the crop in, Dhuyvetter said

An important point with corn silage is losses in storage which can be as high as 20-30 %, he said. There are lots of ways to store corn silage, he said, including putting it in a bag, piling it, putting it in a bunker, baling and wrapping it in plastic, or putting it in a silo.

Some things that can minimise loss in the pile is to pack it well, chop it fine, chop at 65% moisture, and cover the pile to keep it from drying or rotting and take out the feed without exposing the whole pile.

When he looked at the cost per pound of energy in various feeds, grain corn came out to be US$135/tonne, while corn silage calculated out at about US$37.50/tonne. Alfalfa hay averaged US$90/tonne; oat hay averaged US$70/tonne, while grass hay averaged US$50/tonne. Corn silage ranged from US$37/tonne to US$40/tonne depending on which corn price and which pricing mechanism is used, he said.

Some of the other feeds had bigger feeding losses, he said. When those are added in, corn silage becomes a very competitively-priced feed on an energy basis.

In summary, the advantages of corn silage are: a lot of cattle can be fed in a lot of different ways; it is high yielding in good-production years; there is less feeding loss and it is a competitive source of energy.

The disadvantages include: if corn silage is not stored well, losses can be high and there are high input costs with producing corn silage.