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This is how you increase your feed efficiency from maize
Something that you can always develop and improve in your company is your feed efficiency. A higher feed efficiency from your own grown feed always yields money. Some practical tips to increase the feed efficiency of your maize.
The feed efficiency index indicates how many kg of measured milk the cow produces from one kg of dry feed. In practice this fluctuates between 1,2 and 1,55 and that is a lot of money: with 100 dairy cows it saves 50.000 euros whether a kg of dry feed yields 1,2 or 1,5 kg of milk! Better feed efficiency increases your yield and your milk production per hectare. Without additional fertilizer disposal costs.
Increase feed efficiency of silage maize
The feed efficiency you get from maize depends on the hectare yield, nutritional value, digestibility, palatability and your ration composition. It therefore starts with a good choice of maize varieties. Choose varieties that:
- Fit into your ration: if you feed a lot of corn, go for a real silage corn type with an average starch and a high cell wall digestibility. In a grassy ration fits a starchy type better.
- Fully mature within the growing conditions and thus reach their maximum nutritional value. Not fully ripened maize contains less VEM. Very early and early varieties of maize are the best choice in most fields. In the North and on cold, wet fields you opt for ultra early.
- Produce the highest kVEM per hectare on the Recommended Variety List.
Tip: select your varieties here with a handy selection filter >>
A high VEM per kg DM is the key to increasing your feed efficiency. In silage maize, the VEM comes from the starch and from the residual plant. The amount of VEM from the residual plant depends on the cell wall digestibility, which determines how much energy the cow can extract from the cell walls.
Due to a high cell wall digestibility, rumen bacteria can form extra microbial protein from this rumen energy. In combination with good rumination activity, a high cell wall digestibility ensures better feed efficiency and extra milk flotation.
You can see the VEM gain on this pit analysis:
MaizeService for highest harvest security
To realize its yield potential, the maize must of course be able to grow undisturbed. This becomes more difficult due to the disappearance of seed disinfectants. To protect your maize cultivation as best as possible, LG introduces the MaizeService:
- Seed treatment with biostimulant Starcover for more vital maize and disinfection Force 20CS against insects and bird damage;
- After registering a free insurance against bird damage: sowing seed for oversowing is 100% reimbursed by LG. Read here how the LG MaizeService works >>
Design
Opt for the more digestible LG 31 maize varieties. They excel in VEM/kg ds, due to a high utilization of starch and the residual plant. This will produce the most milk from every bite of corn! View the recommended varieties for the coming season >> or contact me below the video for tailor-made advice.
