• • • Optimal time of maize harvest — basis for highquality silage
Increase in animal products requires optimization of forage production, decrease in energy costs, application of effective resource-saving crop cultivation techniques. Bulky feed plays an important role for agriculture in the Udmurt Republic. Production of top-quality fodder for winter makes optimization of harvesting time of great value. Dynamics of maize development and productivity were investigated. Fodder quality was tested as influenced by harvesting time. Experiments took place on sod-podzolic soil with average loam content. Soil contained 2.9–3.6% of organic matter, high concentration of soluble P and exchange K, рНKCl — close to 7.0. Maize grain was harvested at milk, early milk-dough, milk-dough and dough stages. Significance of harvesting time for ensiling was proved. Nutritional value and dry matter content of maize and its silage were analyzed. Harvesting at milk–early milk-dough stage resulted in high water content in silage mass (78–79%), by the dough stage water content dropped down to 71–74%, improving silage quality; exchange energy content being 10.2–10.4 MJ/kg of DM. Level of nitrogen-free extractive substances reports on energy value of forage. Their highest concentration was observed at milk-dough–dough stage (60.0–60.2%). The best forage productivity happened also at this harvesting period (96.4–106.6 GJ/ha).
Source: https://kormoproizvodstvo.ru/en/10-2018-2/, p. 41
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