Lactation Trial From Cornell University

Compliments of Nutrition Research

Comparison of TMF94 to a Widely Grown "Dual-Purpose" Pioneer Hybrid
as Silage for Lactating Dairy Cows

This trial was conducted by Cornell University. Early lactation dairy cows were assigned to two ration treatments for a period of 15 weeks. Rations consisted of 48.2% corn silage, 9.6% alfalfa silage, 15.4% high moisture shelled corn, 13.5% soybean meal, 9.6% SoyPlus , and 3.7% of mineral-vitamin mix. The only difference between the two rations was the corn silage used: TMF or "dual-purpose" hybrid.

An 8% yield per acre advantage was observed with TMF94.

It was observed that TMF had a higher proportion of the total plant in leaves and less in stalks than the "dual-purpose" hybrid . The in vitro digestibility of the TMF leaf fraction was greater than the digestibility of the "dual-purpose" leaf fraction.

Cows fed TMF silage had greater daily feed intake, milk protein content and body weight gain than cows fed the "dual-purpose" silage. During the 15-week trial, cows fed the ration containing TMF silage gained 33 lb. whereas cows fed the "dual-purpose" silage lost 6.7 lb. A numerical increase of 1 lb. of milk per cow per day was observed for cows fed TMF silage compared to cows fed the "dual-purpose" silage.

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