Yield, nutritive value and ensilage characteristics of whole-crop maize, and of the separated cob and stover components – nitrogen, harvest date and cultivar effects

Abstract

SUMMARYThe objectives of the present study were to determine the effects of nitrogen (N) application rate, harvest date and maize cultivar on the yield, quality and the subsequent conservation characteristics of whole-crop, cob and stover silages. The experiment was organized in a spilt-plot design, with harvest date (15 September, 6 October and 27 October) as the main plot, and a three (maize cultivars: Tassilo, Andante and KXA 7211)×two (N application rate: 33 and 168 kg N/ha) factorial arrangement of treatments as the sub-plot, within three replicate blocks, and was conducted at Grange, Dunsany, Co. Meath, Ireland in 2009. The three harvest dates represented early, normal and late harvests, respectively, for a midland site in Ireland. Of the three maize cultivars selected, cvars Tassilo and Andante represent conventional cultivars sown by commercial livestock farmers in Ireland, while cvar KXA 7211 is categorized as a high biomass cultivar. No effect of N application rate was observed on the dry matter (DM) yield, nutritive value or ensiling characteristics of maize whole-crop or cob. Whole-crop and stover harvested on the later date had a lower digestible DM (DDM) content and the silages underwent a more restricted fermentation, compared to silages produced from herbage harvested on earlier dates. Cob silages produced from crops harvested on 15 September had lower DDM content and higher DM loss during ensiling than later harvest dates. Despite higher whole-crop DM yields, the later maturing cultivar KXA 7211 did not improve the DM yields of cob and also resulted in increased DM losses from the ensilage of cob, when compared with the other cultivars. In addition to the DM yield and nutritive value of forage maize at harvest, the subsequent fermentation profile during ensilage influences the optimum choice of cultivar and date for crop harvest in a maize silage production system.