Production and nutritive value of silage corn in different reproductive stages

Corn has been the most used crop for whole plant silage, due to its high potential for dry matter production, high energy and great adaptability to different growing regions. Due to the great importance of the culture for this purpose, the region of the Far West of Santa Catarina, due to the presence of one of the largest dairy basins in Brazil, demands the supply of this food to the animals mainly during the season of forage. Thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate different hybrids and to identify the optimal corn cutting time for silage production that provides a greater economic return to the system. The experimental design used was a randomized complete block design in a 2x4 factorial scheme, allocating different maize hybrids (P30F53 VYHR®; P32R48 VYHR®) to the main plot and the reproductive stages (R2, R3, R4, R5). The experiment had 8 treatments and 3 replicates, totaling 24 experimental units. The studied variables were: dry matter content (DM); crude protein (PB); acid detergent insoluble fiber (FDA); neutral detergent insoluble fiber (NDF); total digestible nutrients (NDT), and CNF-amido, at the reproductive stages. The best economic yield is obtained when the maize crop is ensiled at the reproductive stage R4 and R5. Among the hybrids, the P32R48 VYHR® was the one that obtained better yield, providing greater production of milk by área.