Funded by Results Driven Agriculture Research (RDAR)
Though several corn hybrids are available on the market, Peace Country (PC) producers will benefit more from silage and grazing corn hybrids with lower heat units suited for the unique agroecology of a short growing season. Being able to identify corn hybrids that can produce substantial forage biomass and moderate feed quality, will reduce winter feed costs by extending the grazing season into the later part of fall and even winter. Hence the need to test several corn hybrids with the required corn heat units (CHU) for parts of the PC for their forage production potential and water use efficiency.
What we did
The trial was conducted at Mack Erno’s farm on RR #2, Teepee Creek, near Sexsmith.
We tested 16 corn hybrids. These hybrids, their CHU and sources are presented in Table 24.
The corn hybrids were seeded on May 20, 2022, with a 12-row corn planter. The seeding rate used was 32,000 kernels per acre and seeds were placed at a depth of 1.25". The soil temperature and moisture (volumetric moisture content) at seeding from a 4" soil depth were 8°C and 19.5%, respectively.
No fertilizer was applied.
An in-crop spraying of Round-up at a rate of 0.67 L/acre was done on July 6, 2022.
The corn was harvested for forage on October 17, 2022. Data was collected for plant height, forage yield, quality and water use efficiency.
What we found and implications
Differences were observed between corn hybrids for corn forage dry matter yield and plant height with ranges of 1,962 to 3,803 lbs/acre and 113 - 163 cm, respectively (Table 25). Five of the 16 corn hybrids tested (6909 Corteva, 6910 Corteva, 7005 Corteva, DKC21-36, PS23200RR (PickSeeds) gave almost 2 tonnes/acre of forage DM.
Crude protein ranged between 7.1 - 10.7 % and varied significantly for the 16 corn hybrids (Table 25). Fibre and energy contents of the corn hybrids did not significantly differ from each other (Table 25), while for macro and microminerals, significant differences were observed for Ca (range of 0.14 – 0.32 %), Mg (range of 0.26 – 0.51 %), Fe (range 72 – 160 ppm) and Zn (range 18 -52 ppm) (Table 26). Although not significant, some corn varieties showed a greater advantage in WUE over other varieties (data not shown). This advantage is correlated to an increase in dry matter yield (lbs/ac) for some varieties.
Comments