Abstract

Five silages produced in 1982 were evaluated in two growing trials using 96 steer calves. Forage sorghum silage (heading) was assigned a feeding value of 100. Based on comparative rates and efficiencies of gain, feeding value for the grain sorghum silage averaged 107.5 in Trial 1. The non-heading forage sorghum silage had a value of 64.6 in Trial 1 but only 40.2 before freezing and 31.4 after freezing in Trial 2. The poor values for the non-heading silages were due, in part, to very low feed intakes. There was no advantage in harvesting the non-heading sorghum after a freeze. Rolling the grain sorghum silage to break 95 % of the grain did not improve its value. In Trial 2, adding alfalfa haylage to the non-heading silages did increase steer performance.

Keywords: Cattlemen's Day, 1984, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station contribution, no. 84-300-S, Report of progress (Kansas State University. Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service), 448, Beef, Sorghum, Harvest, Silage, Value

How to Cite:

Smith, R., Bolsen, K., Ilg, H., Hinds, M., Dickerson, J., Hoover, J. & Pope, R. V., (1984) “Effect of sorghum type and harvest date on silage feeding value”, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports 1(1), 53-57. doi: https://doi.org/10.4148/2378-5977.2486