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Faunsdale, AL | I haven’t seen any for years but Pioneer used to have a few tropical varieties. I think they quoted 120+days relative maturity. Planted them a month late here to spread the risk and get into some wet bottoms. They normally grew tall to very tall with a single ear about 5’ above the ground, so there wasn’t a high percentage grain in the silage.
Amazingly it always fed similarly to conventional corn varieties. Maybe got more milk sometimes if the conventional got a little too mature back in the days before kernel processors. The tropical corn grain would not dry down. Had a few rows left one year when we had the combine in that field and ran through it. It looked like cream style corn out of a can as it hit the hopper!
Another option that would certainly cost less per acre is a grain sorghum or a BMR forage sorghum. Have done both planted after corn silage in mid-late July. Had lagoon water/effluent to get it out of the ground but it had to go the rest of the way on its own.
The silage from the conventional grain sorghum planted in 30” rows had a high starch content equivalent to good corn silage. It was processed very finely at chopping and yield/acre wasnt great. It was about ready when a killing frost hit it in early November and we chopped it immediately. It was drying down by the second day as we were finishing it.
Also planted a brachytic (short internodes) BMR sorghum in 15” rows in late July. Same deal with the initial water to get it out of the ground. It grew really short as expected and dense because of the 15” rows and bushy habit. Got some little frosts in mid October that stopped the heads from finishing filling and killed the top leaves but the rest of it was thick enough that it kept growing and was way too wet to make silage. It was nearly a month later before we finally had accumulated enough frosts to make it dry down. It made good silage for replacement heifers and dry cows.
Having a late silage crop can help maximize your use of limited storage space as herd size increases. It was also a way to get lagoons pumped out during a time when weather was good and there wasn’t other silage making activities going on. Hay crop silages can fill that role for most people too. | |
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Late corn silage -- how late in the season can I go?
