New dent type maize hybrids improve dairy cow performance

Starch

Mike says the hybrid has done well on his land, and it has fed well.

“The starch in the grain is more easily accessed by the cow, because it is a ‘dent’ type as opposed to a ‘flint’ type.

“We do wet chemistry nutritional analysis of the silage every quarter, and near infrared analysis monthly, which all show very high starch levels. We also analyse the manure and find there is less starch coming out the back end too.

“We noticed the difference within 48 hours of starting to feed the P7034 and quickly had to take 1.5kg of caustic wheat out of the ration, to allow for all the additional available starch coming from the maize. We also saw a small increase in milk yield too.”

Brothers Spencer and Ralph Mogridge run 190 cows on 120 hectares (297 acres) at Thornton Farm. They calve all-year-round and the cows average 9,000 litres at 4.6 per cent fat and 3.45 per cent protein.

The cows are fed a TMR consisting of a 60:40 mix of grass and maize. Spencer has been carrying out Pioneer accurate crop testing system trials for Pioneer for four years and, like Mike, has spotted P7034 as an interesting contender.

“We grew 20ha in 2018 and will be growing a similar amount again this year,” says Spencer.

“We feed maize every day of the year and aim to provide cows with consistent, high quality mixed forage through the feeder wagon twice-a-day.

“The fat and protein content of the milk both went up when we started feeding P7034 – the protein up from 4.2 per cent to 4.6 per cent and butterfat up 0.2-0.3 per cent. That is worth half a pence a litre.”

To prevent leaving maize stubble and bare soil all winter, the Mogridges direct drilled four-metre bands of perennial rye-grass and forage rape into stubble last October. This has now grown into a substantial additional early feed source.

Spencer says: “This has supplied us with 20ha of extra food and taken away all risk of soil erosion.

“It is a bit of a trial, but we can use it in different ways – zero-graze it for the cows now, strip graze it with heifers or cut it for silage in April before the maize goes back in at the end of April.”