The effect of processed corn silage on production and digestibility characteristics ofgrowing beef replacement heifers

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Animal Feed Science and Technology

Volume

96

Publisher

Elsevier

Publication Date

2002

First Page

221

Last Page

228

Abstract

A study was conducted to determine effects of processing whole crop chopped corn prior to ensiling on diet digestibility and growth of beef replacement heifers. Corn silage (CS) was harvested using two identical six-row self-propelled choppers, one of which was adapted with a roller-processing unit. Corn was chopped to either 13.3 mm (unprocessed; UP) or 10.6 mm (processed; PR) theoretical length of cut (TLC) and ensiled in silage bags. Over the 56-day feedlot study, 90 growing British-cross replacement heifers were randomly assigned to UP or PR CS with three pens per treatment. The diet initially consisted on a dry matter (DM) basis of 55.4% UP or PR CS, 22.3% alfalfa hay (AH), 19.6% wheat middling (WM) and 2.7% supplement (SUPP). Whole plant particle size was estimated from three sub-samples per treatment. Whole cob fraction as a percent of total dry mass was 0.0% for PR and 6.4% for UP (PPP=0.04). Treatment had no affect on whole tract DM or acid detergent fiber (ADF) digestibility (P>0.05) but neutral detergent fiber (NDF) digestibility was higher in heifers fed the PR treatment (P

Comments

Anim. Feed Sci. and Tech. Vol. 96:221-228

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