Innovative procedures to evaluate corn silage for milk yield

Abstract

Corn silage is the main ingredient of diets for dairy cattle (around 40% of diet DM in Italy) and, therefore, an accurate estimation of its nutritive value is essential to describe the whole diet. Given the low, and fairly stable protein, lipid and ash contents in corn silage (e.g. a total of around 15% DM), the critical point to evaluate its energy value is the amount and availability of the two main carbohydrate fractions (NDF and non fiber carbohydrates, NFC).

Keywords

• in vitro degradability, NDF, net energy of lactation, intake