Purdue University
Agricultural Experiment Station
Lafayette, Indiana
Mimeo A.H. 171 April 27, 1956
MATURE CORNSTALK SILAGE VS. GREEN CORNSTALK SILAGE VS. CORN SILAGE FOR FEEDING STEER CALVES
W. M. Beeson, T. W. Perry, C. H0 Nickel and Donald Webb (Conducted at Lynnwood Farm, Carmel, Indiana)
New methods of picking corn and chopping the stalks at the same time with one machine have made it possible to produce a different type of cornstalk silage than the usual method of chopping the stalks late in the fall after the corn is picked. This new method adapts itself to cutting the stalks when the moisture content is high and the leaves and stalks still have considerable green color.
In view of these facts, this experiment was designed to determine:
(1)	The comparative feeding value of mature (late cut) cornstalk silage with green (early cut) cornstalk silage (Lots I and II).
(2)	The feeding value of corn silage as compared to green cornstalk silage when fed with the same amount of ground ear corn that is contained in corn silage (Lots III and IV).
Experimental Plan
Ninety head of Shorthorn steer calves were purchased at a feeder sale in Chadron, Nebraska, at an average cost of 23 cents per pound at the sale. Eighty of these steers were sorted as equally as possible, according to liveweight, thrift and general type, into four lots of 20 calves each. The steers were started on the experimental rations on December 15, 1955, at an average liveweight of 465 pounds.
The treatments were as follows:
Lot I - Mature cornstalk silage, Supplement "AIJ and minerals.
Lot II - Green cornstalk silage, Supplement "A" and minerals.
Lot III - Green cornstalk silage plus ground ear corn equivalent to the amount supplied by corn silage (Lot IV), Supplement :!AU and minerals.
Lot IV - Corn silage, Supplement “A" and minerals.
The different types of silage were fed twice daily according to the appetite of the steers* Supplement “A”' was fed in each lot at a rate of 3»5 pounds per steer daily. Half of the daily amount of oup-plement A'T (1.75 pound) was scattered over the silage at each feeding and mixed with a silage fork.
The allowance of ground ear corn fed in Lot III was calculated on the basis that corn silage fed in Lot IV contained approximately 0.2 pound ground ear corn per pound of silage. This is based on a production of 10.83 tons of corn silage per acre and 65 bushels of corn.
For example, if the steers in Lot IV consumed 35 pounds of corn silage daily, then 7.0 pounds of ground ear corn was fed per steer in Lot III in order to make the corn intake in each lot essentially the same.