Performance of lactating dairy cows fed silage from corn of varying maturities

The deleterious effect of frost on corn harvested for silage was investigated with 30 lactating Holstein cows fed silages from corn harvested at the milk or dough stage, or after one, two, or five frosts. The fibrous components of the corn plant increased as maturity and dry matter content increased, whereas the mineral content tended to decrease. Dry matter intake and 4% fat-corrected milk increased as maturity of the silage increased up to the silage harvested after two frosts and then declined for the silage harvested after five frosts. Gross energy apparent digestibility decreased from 64.9% for milk stage silage to 60.6% for silage from corn harvested after five frosts. Partitioning of gross energy, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium provided similar increasing trends in feed intake, utilization, and milk production from milk stage silage to that harvested after two frosts, then a decline of all measurements occurred with silage harvested after five frosts. Net energy for lactation was calculated for each silage from the observed digestible energy, from a regression equation used by the provincial feed evaluation laboratories, and from a recently published summative equation; the latter method appeared best.