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Harvesting Silage

H

HenryBros

Member
Out of curiosity, at what point in plant maturity is corn ready to be cut for silage? I've always thought that the process of harvesting and storing silage for feed was interesting. I live in NW Ohio, and currently harvesting corn or hay for silage is almost non-existent here.
 

I don't know at what percentage we cut, but we usually start cutting once the kernals are filled and before a killing frost. We have cut after frost many years, but if we get a lot of rain the corn starts to get too dry. We just pile on the ground and pack. Some years we do tarp the pile, but not the past few.
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Been a long time since I cut silage, but cut a lot of it way back when; we always tried to cut in the hard dough stage.......
 
JD John has it right. In a bag or bunker starting
when whole plant moisture is around 68% is about
right. Upright silos need to be a hair drier to
keep from leaking too much. Below sixty percent
moisture is to be avoided.

It's like harvesting fresh veggies from your
garden... nobody wants to eat it if everything is
hard and chewy.
 
We cut when the corn is some where around 60-70% moisture. I like to have it cut before akilling frost, After a frost it dries down very fast. Our silge goes into pits so we like it to be wet so it will pack better. If you have tower silos , then you will want the corn to be drier ,or the silage will compress ,and the juice will run out of the silo,a silo that runs juice out will let air in, and spoil the silage. If the pictures that I tried to post come through, you can see how green the corn is. Bruce
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Thanks for all of the pictures and explanations so far. I have noticed in some pictures that the corn is completely green, while others chop it when it has partially turned brown. If I'm following this correctly I presume the decision on when to chop corn is based on the desired level of moisture (besides maturity), especially in regards to how the silage is stored? I would have guessed that for feeding cattle you would have wanted a fair amount of moisture still in the silage (as long as it doesn't spoil). However, I don't have much experience feeding or raising cattle either. Thanks again everyone.
 
It is amazing how different varieties will be
greener than others at the correct harvest point.
Weather also has a big effect... if the soil is
very dry, like in 2012, plants will be drier than
at the same stage of maturity in a wet year.
Plant health will also make a difference in
appearance vs moisture level. If the corn gets
some kind of leaf blight or other disease, the
appearance can be quite brown, but the stem is
still very wet.

Harvesting the stuff is fun, but is very
stressful. The correct harvest window can be very
short, and you'd better be ready to roll when it
is. Combining corn is much easier in this regard.
 
Brown dead leaves at the bottom of the stalks is called firing and is caused from a lack of nitrogen late in maturity. The corn fires off it's lower leaves in an attempt to funnel more nutrients to kernel production.


harvesting silage corn too early can be deadly to cows. I can't remember exactly the name, I keep thinking nitrate poisoning... Basically, before the corn has the chance to fill kernels, the corn stalk is loaded full of stored nitrogen. That can kill a cow. If you have a corn plant that had a good start, then got into a drought, the corn will hold the nitrate in the stalks until it gets enough moisture to fill kernels. That's the other time corn silage can be deadly.


We always chopped the Saturday before Labor Day.
 
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