Ensiling Wet Corn Silage

The discussions on corn silage maturity have centered on monitoring dry matter content to time harvest thus far. The golden rule is to assess whole plant moisture content and harvest at the 65-70% range.

However, what should be done if corn silage is harvested too wet? ( some farmers are worried about a wet fall and will harvest silage wetter than they would like).

Wet corn silage is more likely to undergo extensive fermentation and have high levels of acetic acid (which can reduce intake).

Two recommendations stand out:

• Increasing length of cut for wet silage to maintain effective fiber (especially important in higher corn silage diets)
• Inoculate with homolactic lactic acid bacteria (LAB)

In general immature corn does not need inoculation to ferment, but the idea is to populate the silage with lactic acid producing bacteria to encourage more lactic (vs acetic) acid production. Also, should corn get frosted hard, natural populations of lactic acid bacteria will be reduced, and need to be supplemented.

A couple articles on this:

Michigan state
Kansas State (Bolson)