What To Expect In Drought Stressed Corn Silage?

 

This year's growing season has been quite different in many parts of the country. During the drought season, crops we produce for cattle feed experienced mild to heavy drought stress in many areas. In this post, we will gawk at strangers. At Silage Agro, the best manufacturers of Silage Rajasthan, mean look at the challenges you need to expect with drought-stressed corn silage and what you should look out for.



What is drought?

A simple definition of drought is a prolonged period without any rain. Your crops can get varying degrees of drought stress, and its severity can cause a dramatic commotion during dry and hot weather in a short time.

Some risks you should know about in drought-stressed corn silage

Silage Agro believes that keeping these risks in mind and learning how to tackle such threats can save you costs and time. If all this confuses you, contact us to get an early supply of NutriMeal Silage for such conditions.

Nitrates: If you have harvested any crop during drought, the chances are that it will contain high levels of toxic nitrates. The rumen converts these nitrates to harmful nitrites. Nitrites combine with hemoglobin and form methemoglobin, which cannot carry oxygen, making it hard for your cattle to breathe. If you have nitrogen-fertilized your field or experienced heavy manure, your crops can likely get nitrates.

If you expose your drought-stressed silage to rain recently, nitrate-level may increase. So you should wait 13-14 days after rainfall to be on the safe side.

If you put your nitrate-infected silage in silos for at least 21 days before feed-out, it will reduce the levels of nitrates.

Nitrates are high in the lower part of the crop. So chopping at high levels will reduce the nitrate content. You will have less yield, but something is better than nothing.

You should chop and test the crop if you suspect it was nitrated.

You should move the cutter bar higher to leave more of the nitrate in the field.

You should test silage for nitrates.

High-nitrate silages can produce harmful silo gas, so you should be careful around bunkers. Stay safe by wearing a mask.

Molds & mycotoxins: Aspergillus creates aflatoxin, which can grow and multiply in hot and dry weather conditions that come in drought. On the other hand, Fusarium ear rot makes the fumonisin mycotoxins familiar in various weather conditions, but high temperatures and drought stress before and after silking are suitable. In addition, you should watch for other mycotoxins such as DON, T-2 toxin, zearalenone, and fumonisins.

●       Aflatoxins harm your cattle by causing feed deficiency and reproduction issues and can also affect the digestive system.

●       Aflatoxins are also poisonous for us and our cattle. As per standards, the aflatoxins in milk should be under 0.50 ppb.

●       You should consider an analysis of mold and mycotoxins before feed-out.

Dairy ration considerations with drought-stressed corn silage

You should consider these changes in ratio with drought-stressed silage.

●       The rations can have higher fiber levels.

●       Fiber digestibility might be higher and can trigger higher feeding rates to compensate for shortages.

●       Higher sugar levels are needed to compensate for a percentage of the extra starch supplements.

●       Drought-stressed corn silage is low on energy.

●       Corn silage with little or no starch works best.

●       Higher crude protein levels will be there.

●       Low starch, high sugar silage will be suitable.

●       Calcium and potassium levels can increase.

●       You should also get a lab test of the silage before feeding.

Drought-stressed corn silage harvest situations

You should consider these things for harvesting drought-stressed silage.

●       The harvest moisture should be about 62-68%.

●       Use an inoculant or bulletproof forage treatment for fermentation.

●       Do not green chop and quickly feed drought-stressed silage.

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