Maize Fodder—Influence of Barrenness on Yield and Quality1

Abstract

Our objective was to establish the relative yield potential and quality of high‐sugar, male‐sterile (barren) vs. normal, male‐fertile (fruited) maize (Zea mays L.) for silage crops. We produced fodder from a male‐sterile and a male‐fertile cultivar by procedures causing both barren and fruited plants of both cultivars during each of two years. Feed quality, dry matter yield, and digestible dry matter yield were determined for husked ears, stover, and fodder.Barrenness reduced in vitro digestibility of fodder from the male‐fertile cultivar, but it did not affect digestibility of the male‐sterile. However, total non‐structural carbohydrate concentration of the fodder was greatly reduced by barrenness of both cultivars. Crude protein of the fodder was not affected by barrenness.Fruited plants yielded 20% more fodder dry matter than barren plants of both cultivars. The fruited plants also yielded more digestible dry matter (22 to 27% more than barren plants).We confirmed the hypothesis that preventing grain formation in maize reduces its efficiency in producing fodder dry matter. Our results show that maize breeders are likely to produce higher yielding, high quality silage cultivars by developing male‐fertile, fruited genotypes instead of male‐sterile, high‐sugar genotypes.