Production of corn silage in advanced growth stages and consequence of grain processing - a review

Abstract

The conserved foods have a big importance to planned systems of animal production. The maize plant is adapted and is grown in diverse environmental conditions of Brazil, being one of the world’s most consumed cereals, having a widerange of utilization, both in the human feed as in the animal feed, combining this characteristics with high productivity of forage per area, that became the principal plant for silage. The moment of harvest of maize crop aimed to silage production is a determinant of the final cost of the process, because silage crops ensiled before the right time, shows low production, less percentage of grain in the mass and highcontent of neutral detergent fiber,on the other hand, the late harvesting of forage provides a higher dry matter accumulation and higher proportion of grains in the mass,suggesting a greater dilution of the money invested. However, with advance of corn cycle, consequently a less proportion of water is found in the plant, this fact can harm other factors in production of good quality silage, as particle size, degree of processing of the grains and the specific mass of the silo. With the production of corn silage in advanced growth stages, a higher deposition of starch in grains is observed, however, found a decline in digestibility, being mechanical processing as an alternative to improve the utilization of this important constituent of corn silage by the animals.