Correct chopping moment lowers your feed costs

In many places the maize choppers are gradually coming into action. The early maize varieties, sown a lot this year in order to be able to harvest before October 1, are already more mature on many plots than many people think. Maize growers would do well to closely monitor the maturation of the maize in order to estimate the optimal harvest moment. Chopping at the right time has a major impact on your feed costs!

What is that optimal moment? That is the moment when the maize has reached its maximum usable nutritional value: a ds content in the cob of 55 – 60% and in the plant of 24 – 27%, resulting in a total ds content of about 36 %. Of course taking into account the weather forecast and possible harvest risks.

Useful nutritional value
As is well known, the amount of feed value you get from your own land has a major influence on your feed costs and therefore on your business efficiency. Chopping too early or too late results in a loss of the usable nutritional value that your maize can provide:

• Harvesting too early can lead to sap losses, acidification of the silage, reduced intake and a lower VEM due to a lower starch content.
• Harvesting too late can lead to reduced starch utilization, lower digestibility and a higher chance of forcing.

Determining optimum chopping torque
'In order to harvest at the optimum time, you have to determine the current ds content of your plot. Determine the following indicators for a few plants spread over the plot.'

• Flask share: estimate the proportion of the cob in order to correctly evaluate the cob relative to the plant in the total ds content;
  • Well-developed maize with good cobs: 60% cob share
  • Medium-developed cobs or very massive plants: 50% cob share
  • Less well-developed flasks: 40% flask share
• Ds content grain: break a number of cobs in half and cut the kernels in half. The milk line in the grain indicates the ripening stage:

• Ds content residual plant: cut some plants above 1^e tie off, snap the stem, wring it out and estimate how much moisture will come out:

You determine the optimum harvest time based on the ds content and an average ripening of 1% ds per 3 days. Tip: the free MaisManager app is a handy help! Download it here.

Knowing more? Come to a with 5 corn plants LG corn demo for a ds determination with the LG lab or ask your roughage specialist for tailor-made advice.

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