Sponsored: Limagrain
Vet: 'It improves the rumen function'
Healthy rumen function is the starting point for healthy production. A good rumen function can be achieved with 10 to 20 kilos of dry matter from high-quality roughage with sufficient energy, protein and structure.
In silage maize, the balance between energy from starch and cell walls is important. Starch is a very good source of energy, but you are harvesting the whole plant. The cell wall digestibility (percentage of NDF) determines how much energy the cow can extract from this residual plant: a higher digestibility means that the cell contents can be used better.
Cell walls buffer
That energy from cell walls is also safe energy, with regard to rumen health. Highly digestible cell walls provide rumen buffer and structure and counterbalance rapidly fermentable starch.
Additional VEM
In addition, a high plant digestibility naturally provides extra nutritional value in every bite of silage maize. Starch provides an average of 45% of the VEM, the NDF (cell walls) an average of 30%. The higher the NDF digestibility, the higher the VEM per kg of dry matter. And thus the return: more VEM in each bite of silage maize means more milk from roughage.
LG is therefore not only working on starch yield in silage maize breeding, but also on increasing plant digestibility. LG corn varieties therefore excel in digestibility and VEM yield on the Recommended Variety List.
In the animation video below more information about maize silage and rumen health:
