High value silage depends on maintaining chop quality throughout harvest. Do you know how to reliably monitor your silage quality?

Energy from corn silage comes in a large part from starch in the grain itself. After consuming, the outer seed coat impedes starch digestion. To counter act this, many modern choppers are fitted with a kernel processor, that physically crushes or damages the grain and stalks, improving digestibility. Correctly setting these rollers is critical. Too close and machine wear increases, too far apart and the kernels aren’t broken and digestibility is decreased.  

To achieve high-quality silage, catching any problems with the processor as soon as possible is critical. To do this, grab a 32 oz. cup and at least once an hour during harvest, grab a sample from the pile.  

Next spread the sample out on a flat surface like a card table near the pile and go through the kernels. Count all the kernels that are one-half or greater in size. You can also put the sample into a bucket of water. The kernels will sink to the bottom and stalks and leaves will float. Skim/drain off the top layer and again count any kernels that are one-half or greater in size.

For both methods, the goal is to have 2 or fewer whole or half-size kernels in your count. Anything over that and word can be passed to the chopper to adjust the processing.

For those who don’t have access to a kernel processer, keeping chop length short can help accomplish similar results. Shortening chop length to 3/8 inch for machines without a processor will do more kernel damage and maintain similar fiber particle size. For those whose priority is not particle size, mostly beef producers, dropping down to ½ inch chop length will damage even more kernels and provide the additional benefit of helping get a better pack.

By Ben Beckman

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