If the crop is harvested when the milk line is only ¼ of the way down, estimated silage DM will be 28-30%. Below 30% DM; Lactobacillus bacteria must generate higher levels of lactic acid to stabilise the silage, to achieve this they must consume more sugars which results in a nutritionally poorer and more acidic silage Furthermore; Clostridia bacteria prefer these wetter environments and instead
of lactic they produce butyric acid; this is a weaker acid which prevents silage stabilisation enhancing the risk of silage deterioration and DM losses. Harvesting with a milk line ¾ of the way down will produce a DM silage of over 35%. Clamp consolidation is burdened when maize is harvested above 33% DM which will facilitate oxygen contamination causing silage deterioration and
DM losses. Furthermore, the higher proportion of hard, yellow starch will reduce its digestibility and may pass directly through the animal.
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