Brought to you by Limagrain
The benefit of good digestibility
With a fluctuating milk price and an increasingly sharp focus on efficiency, the utilization of your roughage is more important than ever. With a smart choice of maize varieties you lay the foundation by choosing silage maize with a high nutritional value and good digestibility.
Producing maximum milk from roughage ensures the lowest feed costs. Maize for silage provides the energy that is sorely needed for good and healthy milk production. Almost half of the energy in silage maize comes from starch. The residual plant (cell walls) provide 25 to 33% of the energy. Here cell wall digestibility plays a key role: the higher this NDF digestibility, the more energy is released from the cell walls. There are major differences between maize varieties, with a variation of 45% to 60% cell wall digestibility.
Less feed costs, more efficiency
The gain of a high cell wall digestibility is clearly visible on the silage analysis: it delivers up to 75 VEM per kg of dry matter extra! So more milk from every kilogram of roughage. With the same cultivation costs, this increases your yield.
View corn varieties with the highest digestibility >>
Recycling guide and the environment
The Kringloopwijzer is all about mineral efficiency. This makes roughage utilization even more important: more liters of milk from roughage means a more efficient use of minerals, and therefore a better score in the Recycling Guide. The energy from maize ensures efficient nitrogen utilization and inhibits the formation of methane in the rumen.
Starch supply and quality
The energy from the starch is partly released in the rumen (unresistant starch) and partly in the intestines (resistant starch). There are considerable differences in starch content and resistance between the available maize varieties. By properly adjusting this to the amount of grass in your ration, your feed efficiency increases:
- If you feed a lot of grass, choose a starchy variety. The LG varieties with a lot of starch and a high degree of resistance can be recognized by the Starplus label.
- If you feed a lot of corn, a moderate starch content is safer. Varieties like LG 7005 en LG 7005 fit perfectly here, with a high VEM/kg ds and a somewhat lower starch content.
To get the corn off to a good start, a protective seed coating is a good idea. Starcover Force offers the broadest protection and comes with a free Maize service in case of bird damage. Read more about the Maize service here.
After the choice of variety, it naturally comes down to good cultivation, harvest, storage and feeding in order to utilize your kVEM/ha and increase your feed efficiency. Loves roughfeedforum.nl keep an eye out for more tips, sign up for our newsletter or ask for free tailor-made advice!
