The digestibility of the starch component of corn silage is influenced primarily by kernel processing and ensiling time. Starch digestibility in corn silage is important because about half of its energy values comes from the starch which is provided by the gran fraction.
Based on a sampled survey of commercial testing labs over 2005 to 2013, results indicate a high percentage of corn silage samples categorized with poor processing (up to 42%) and a low percentage of corn silage samples categorized with excellent processing (only 7 to 17%) .
Recently UW-Extension surveyed dairy farms to learn their corn silage harvest, processing and feeding practices, and collected corn silage samples during silo feed-out for determination of processing score and particle size.
To learn more a about the on-farm survey conducted by Team Forage please view the survey paper or Dr. Randy Shaver’s presentation “Update on Starch Utilization by Dairy Cows”.
source:uwex.edu