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'Energy-rich ration with maize and MKS'
With thirty years of experience as a dairy experimental farm on light sandy soil in a water extraction area, they at De Marke experimental farm know everything about the opportunities and challenges of forage cultivation under difficult conditions. In the pursuit of maximum feed value yield and utilization of our own land, part of the maize was harvested as MKS in 2021.
"Our research program focuses on three themes that dairy farming in the Netherlands needs to work on: circular agriculture, climate and nature-inclusive agriculture. We want to develop and disseminate knowledge on these themes through system research. As the second largest roughage crop, maize has interfaces with all three Maize is under quite a bit of pressure, but our position at the moment is that maize continues to play a very important role for dairy farming," explains manager Zwier van der Vegte.
Reduce emissions
"In terms of biodiversity, soil quality and crop protection, maize is less positive than grassland. However, maize produces a much higher yield than grass on drier sandy soils, especially during dry summers. Maize then even provides a considerable crude protein yield and energy. to use your grass. There are also tasks to significantly reduce the emissions of ammonia and methane, then you can hardly ignore maize."
3 kilos of starch from corn
"To reduce these emissions, we try to achieve good milk production with as little crude protein in the ration as possible. We feed a constant ration with 50% maize for four months in the winter. At the beginning of December we started feeding MKS, 1,5 dry dust per day. Together with the silage maize, which we then put back slightly, we feed 3 kilos of starch from maize. With 55% dry matter, 1.200 VEM and 618 grams of starch, the MKS is a very nice source of energy. To support good levels, the ration must provide a lot of energy."
(un)resistant starch
"A big advantage is that you can still decide at the last minute whether to harvest the maize partly as MKS or not. For example, we have not made MKS at De Marke in the last three years because the grass yield was low. This year we harvested plenty of grass and we harvested the last 8 hectares of maize as MKS on October 5. You should not harvest MKS too late, because then the starch becomes too resistant. We also leave the silage closed for at least six weeks so that the starch becomes more unstable. a lot of energy at rumen level for microbial protein formation and you prevent intestinal acidification."
20 tons of compost
To decide whether to make MKS at the end of the season, you need a suitable maize variety. "Over the past two years we have had very good experiences with LG 7005† A very early variety, which in yield is not inferior to many late varieties. As silage maize, it supplies more than 1.000 VEM per kilo of dry matter, not only from starch but also from good plant digestibility. That fits very nicely next to the MKS. After the harvest, approximately 5 tons of dry matter of plant residues remains on the land, which corresponds to 20 tons of compost. In combination with grass-maize crop rotation and a good catch crop after the maize, we maintain the organic matter content so well."
