Bovine Banter

Episode 22.4: 2025 PA Corn Silage Crop Recap

• Penn State Extension • Season 22 • Episode 4

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Join dairy educator Kasey Hower and agronomy educator Zack Curtis from Penn State Extension as they discuss this year’s corn silage crop as well as some upcoming opportunities to learn more about this topic during a webinar series.

Kasey Hower:

Welcome to Bovine Banter with the Penn State Extension Dairy Team. I'm Kasey Howard and I'm a dairy educator based in Burks County, Pennsylvania. Joining us today is Zack Curtis, an agronomy educator at Penn State Extension based out of Wayne County. Today we're going to be talking a little more about forages, including a crop recap of this year and some upcoming opportunities with Penn State Extension. So thanks for being with us today, Zack. And to get us started, can you please introduce yourself and talk a little bit more about your background as an agronomist?

Zack Curtis:

Yeah, hey, good morning. Thanks for having me on, Kasey. My name is Zack Curtis. I'm a field and forage crops educator with Extension. I'm based up in Wayne County and work a lot in the northeast portion of the state. I primarily work with grain and forage crop producers. Really, we have a heavy forage production background here in the north. A lot of livestock and a lot of grass and corn silage acres to feed our animal herds up here in the north. But uh I'm always interested in corn silage because I think it's a nice marriage between the grain and forage crop production world. And then there's uh just enough time spent there in the livestock world to really blend it all together. So I know it's a kind of a unique crop because it brings so many things together, but it's certainly interesting and always a challenge to work with.

Kasey Hower:

Yeah, it's definitely um our king of forages, and pretty much anyone that feeds ruminants, we know it's the foundation of all their rations. So this year in Pennsylvania, we had a pretty wet spring followed by a dry summer in fall. What's your perspective on the growing season and how it has affected this year's forage crops?

Zack Curtis:

Yeah, I I think overall across Pennsylvania, you talk to anybody right now and they'll tell you how how tough of a growing season this was. First off, I mean that for for the majority of the state, it rained and rained and rained, uh, pretty much May through July. And then once July came, you you couldn't buy rain if you tried. Um and uh it was really, really tough. I I know getting getting things planted on time, I mean, there was two distinct windows, I think, for a lot of the state. You know, you could either plant sometime in late April, May before it really rained a lot. And um if you weren't ready or if the field wasn't ready by then, it was it was just about the end of June that you were looking at trying to get something planted. So we had some challenges there from late planting. Um we had some challenges with early planted corn that we were worried that the the nitrogen fertilizer that we used might have gotten leashed out of the soil from all that rain. Um I know we were talking in parts of Lancaster County. I mean, it was you know four or five, six inches of rain and one in one rain event. That brings challenges of its own. And then and then it got so so dry, um, you know, we were worried about you know, later planted stuff if we could get nitrogen back in the soil to to keep that crop growing. But the biggest issue I think was was trying to judge maturity with all those different factors, right? It it's you know, we had we had early planted, we had late planted, we had drought, we had too much water overall across the state, actually didn't have too much trouble getting the growing degree days or the heat units that we needed to support good corn growth. All in all, for the most part, regardless of when that corn was planted, we held pretty closely to our 10-year averages for growing degree day accumulation, and I think it even surprised some people. Um, you know, we got to the end of the growing season, we said, well, we planted this corn late, it's gonna mature late, and then next thing you know, it's uh it's ready to go, and maybe we weren't um challenge trying to get everything timed correctly.

Kasey Hower:

Oh, yeah, definitely. It seems like everybody is chomping at the bit, and then it's like just go time, and everybody, I mean, you see machines running all over the place. Before we get into maybe some results that we're seeing of this year's crops, did you see any producers maybe change their cropping plan due to all the rain that we got early in the season? Um, and if so, what changes did they make or what considerations should you make before doing this?

Zack Curtis:

I think we still saw a lot of people stick to their corn, their typical corn silage planting. Um, maybe in some rare cases in the north where we got really late into June, some folks who took a look at switching over to forage sorghum. I know I heard of some reports across the northern tier of a handful of producers who switched to forage sorghum just so they'd have some kind of forage uh that they could grow in a short time to feed their livestock. And you know, realizing that we didn't have as much growing season left at that point to support good corn growth. You know, we were we were concerned that we would run out of calendar today's. We weren't we weren't certain you know when we might have that first killing frost in the fall, some complications there as far as trying to wrap our heads around uh what the rest of the growing season would look like. I didn't hear too many reports of people having to replant corn this year, though, so that was a plus.

Kasey Hower:

Okay, yeah, that was something I was gonna ask you about if anybody had to replant too because of the rain.

Zack Curtis:

Even though it was wet and rainy, I think you know we had enough acreage that was now I'm sure there's an exception somewhere who's listening, but generally speaking, I mean that corn got out of the ground and it was ready to go, and we didn't have we certainly didn't have slug pressure like we did a couple years ago, so that helped. And I for the most part that corn held through that stress and you know it was able to to uh carry on and persevere. These, you know, these modern corn hybrids, they certainly aren't what they were 10 or 15 or 20 years ago, and and breeders have spent a lot of time and a lot of money trying to get these hybrids to tolerate these either early season stressors because they realize they were planting earlier and they have to be able to tolerate cool, wet soils, and um they have to be able to tolerate some some kind of a period of drought. And between those two things, I think corn silage production today certainly doesn't look like what it did 10 or 15 or 20 years ago.

Kasey Hower:

Yeah, we're definitely always trying to improve. So getting into, I guess, some more of what we're actually seeing on this year's crop, as we're recording this now. People have pretty much finished up or are finishing up chopping corn silage. Um, and then when this podcast will be released, we'll be well finished. It'll be like November. But what are some things that you're seeing with the this year's crop in terms of moisture, starch, disease, or pest damage yield, those sorts of things?

Zack Curtis:

I think, like I said before, I think timing was a challenge for you know producers based on where we were. And you know, don't get me wrong, there's always producers out there who know exactly what's going on. They're into them with their crop, they have a consultant or a crop scout out there checking things for them. But uh, if you just if you just put corn in the planter and you visited twice over during the season to spray and fertilize and you came back in October or late September expecting that it was going to take that long to mature, I I think there was a lot of people who could have been surprised. Um, we we as a team kind of informally tracked moisture levels around the state. I kind of informally track it with some local producers, and we found, you know, for the most part, there was some acreage, uh, especially in the southeast that was ready late August time frame. You know, we had some fields that that were being tracked in Lavanon County that were at a good harvestable moisture early September. We had some acreage in Franklin County that was ready to go in in mid-September. And then I've been keep I've been keeping an eye on some fields here in the north that uh actually still aren't at the right moisture for silage. Um so that's challenging. Yep. But um and then I also pulled up some uh preliminary results here from Cumberland Valley, the forage lab down in Chambersburg. And of the preliminary results that they had, actually, things are things are looking pretty good. I mean, they they report here 4,440 samples tested uh so far from 2025, dry matter at 36.9 percent on average, which is right where we'd like to see it uh for a good harvest. The first standard deviation, the range, you know, it's anywhere between 31 and 43 percent dry matter. So we have the variability that we typically see in crop moisture levels.

Kasey Hower:

I always like to remind guys too that it's so important to look at your whole plant moisture and not necessarily just I think some guys still like to just look at maturity of the cob, but I think if you don't test the whole plant moisture, sometimes it you could be surprised.

Zack Curtis:

Yeah, that's uh actually I'm glad you brought that up. There was a there's some work that Cornell did, led by Joe Lawrence, um, where they actually looked at how that ear and how the stover contributes to the whole plant dry matter levels and found some pretty big differences just from growing season to growing season, but they found also found some pretty big big differences just from hybrid to hybrid.

Kasey Hower:

Yeah.

Zack Curtis:

Um so much of this corn data is driven by corn grain production. You have to understand that every hybrid dries down slightly different, whether that ear stays upright or whether it falls down, whether that leaf there on the on the husk starts to starts to retract a little bit and lets some of that tip of the ear poke out. And then you start getting stressors like drought. There's a lot of little intrinsical differences from year to year and plant to plant. And you know, you're looking at the ear gets you close, but certainly there's no substitute for checking the whole plant moisture and using that to figure out what moisture level you're currently at.

Kasey Hower:

Yeah, and it's pretty easy to do, you know, even if you just buy like what we like to do on the extension side of things is just a lawn chipper or a mulcher, and then using either a costure tester or a microwave to check that moisture level every couple days or at least once a week just to keep on top of it. What are some additional things that you're seeing? Was this year maybe worse or better or the same for pressure from different pests or diseases that we might typically see in corn?

Zack Curtis:

Yeah, I um you know, we had some reports of some different ear rots floating around the state. Again, that's another thing. It's so hybrid specific. I mean, some some hybrids do a really, really good job of having a natural immune system to help ward off some of those different molds like gibberella and fusarium. And then also, you know, your rotational management. I mean, there's still some ground in the state that's rotated between true sod, like alfalfa or grass. You know, that goes a long way to help minimize disease pressure. There's a you know, a lot of acreage that's double cropped with rye and triticale. And yeah, if you do that for a long time, that's still technically a continuous corn situation. So you got to be careful if you have disease levels building up after a long period of double cropping with corn and a small grain. Okay.

Kasey Hower:

What can farmers do to combat that?

Zack Curtis:

I I know it, I know it's tricky. I know there's a lot of reasons why we we crop the way that we do, but I mean get get getting away from a grass crop is what probably one of the biggest things you can do. That a lot of those causal organisms that create those molds and mycotoxin issues, they're are shared between corn and rye and triticale, and I think barley as well. But you know, if you can go to soybean for a year, that helps some. If you can go to alfalfa or sod for four years, that helps a lot. Um, as far as removing that host, so you don't have that disease pressure building up. Um now, if you're limited on acreage and and and you want to produce a true double crop corn and small grain because because you are limited on acres, probably the first thing you should do is take a look at the hybrids that you're using on your farm. Hybrid hybrid selection is probably one of the probably the most important uh management tool that you have to protect against different diseases in your corn crop. So work with your agronomist, work with your seedsmen. If you're struggling year after year with with different disease issues, make sure that disease tolerance and disease resistance is one of the leading things in that hybrid package. And uh they should be able to find hybrid data and production data that really supports the claims that they're making.

Kasey Hower:

Yeah. Yeah, I think that's important, making sure that there's science to back up some of the claims to various products on market.

Zack Curtis:

Correct, correct. And and you know, I don't want to say that there's really bad hybrids on the market. There's there's a lot of these companies produce really good solid genetics. It's just whether or not it's a it's a good fit for your farm is probably one of the most limiting factors uh when it comes to how a hybrid produ performs and and making sure that it han it handles the way that you know your management strategies on your farm.

Kasey Hower:

True. Yeah, making sure you have the equipment and you know the manual labor to accomplish what you need to.

Zack Curtis:

Certainly.

Kasey Hower:

Yeah, certainly. Some other things that we're seeing this year with our growing season is probably some higher nitrates, and we've seen an increase in instances of higher amounts of silo gas. What can farmers do to combat this or take extra precautions and make sure everybody comes through silage season safely?

Zack Curtis:

Yeah, I know it's there's unfortunately there's been some pretty sad stories here in the past month or so, um, really around the state, around deaths occurring due to silo gas, silo gas issues. A lot of that comes back to nitrate accumulation in the plant, right? We go out and we put out a lot of highly available nitrogen, whether it's coming from ammonia and our manure or if it's coming urea or liquid UAN fertilizer. Regardless of the source, we don't have enough rainfall for that plant to actually metabolize that nitrate and convert it into protein. And it just kind of sits there in the plant. And then once we chop it, we break open all those little plant cells and all those nitrates get converted to gas and they come out and you know they float around in the atmosphere. These silo gases are usually heavier than air, especially the NO2 gas, nitrous gas. And when you breathe that in, it reacts with the moistures in your lungs to create nitric acid and it scars up your lung tissue and you can actually drown from that moisture accumulation within your lungs. You know, we don't we don't necessarily want to say stop fertilizing because that drives our yields, but if you can avoid that silo area for the first three weeks after filling, you know, it's a lot easier with something like a bag or a trench silo. If you have an upright silo, you know, we understand that you do probably do prefer to get in there and cover the top, especially if it's a top unloading silo. So if you have to get in there at bare minimum, you should run the run the blower, keep some air circulating in there. You got to understand that that's not that's not a guaranteed safety tactic because if you're way down in a partly filled silo, you're not gonna get enough air movement uh to keep that fresh air coming in there. You know, try not to take any chances if you can help it. Make sure you have a buddy working nearby who's out of danger who can help help you out. Yeah.

Kasey Hower:

Um I was gonna say having someone there is really, I think, important.

Zack Curtis:

Yeah, most of these stories that we've heard about past couple months, it's it's you know, it's been one person going out and it's business as usual. And this is certainly not a year to to go about business as usual. And then if you are out there and you start feeling weird, get out of there. And and I understand, you know, you're you're if you're trying to level off a silo to cover it, well, usually you tend to huff and puff pretty good after a couple after a couple minutes of doing that. But if you start feeling lightheaded or dizzy, you you gotta get yourself to fresh air.

Kasey Hower:

Yeah. Does the literature really back up chopping a little bit higher too on the plant and reducing the nitrates?

Zack Curtis:

You generally the uh the assumption there is the nitrates accumulate worse in the bottom portion of the plant. Now, I don't have I don't have anything in front of me that says like you know, you'll see like a 10% reduction by every inch or something like that. It's it's the numbers aren't really cut and dry, but that is an assumption. Um but certainly you know if we're if we're chopping either in the middle of a long drought period or just after a long drought period, that's when the highest risk is. Now, if you're if you chop corn, like let's say you got a rain late in the fall and you end up chopping your corn a week later, the risk does go down because at that point the plant has had enough moisture to convert those nitrates into a plant stable protein. So in those cases it's it's less risky, but yeah, certainly keep fresh air moving, work with a buddy, and if you're in if you're in doubt, get out.

Kasey Hower:

Okay. So I guess do you have any other messages for our listeners or what would be your key takeaway points from this year's cropping season?

Zack Curtis:

I would say um number one, we should probably be happy that we had a good crop at all. I mean, this was not an ideal growing season, but I'm looking to the rest of this Cumberland Valley report. I mean, I'm seeing and 30-hour NDFD levels at about 55%. I'm seeing starch values at an average of 37.6 percent. You know, for you dairy folks, I'm seeing here, you know, there we got an NEL of 0.77, seven hour starch degradability of 70.9%. I think all things considered, this is a nice crop that we've had. And if you think it's poor, I mean corn prices aren't that high right now. So at le at least that's working out for you.

Kasey Hower:

That is true.

Zack Curtis:

So I I guess it if there's a silver lining anywhere, if this is a year to have a poor corn crop, it'd be this one. Maybe that's where you take a look at uh like a forward contracting situation with your feed provider. You know, if you gotta if you gotta make a starch inventory or something like that. Um, but certainly know your yields, know your quality. I think all things considered, you know, this isn't a terrible crop to have, but in the future, if you're not tracking plant moistures, we really encourage you to do so because so much of this crop quality and fermentation quality revolves around having the right amount of moisture present. I like to stick to 65% moisture or 35% dry matter. You can fluctuate a little bit lower than that if you're going into an upright uh oxygen limiting silo like a harvest store. You can go just a little bit higher moisture level if you're going into a bag or a trench. The ideal ranges vary based on your individual farm. Um, and most of all, be safe out there.

Kasey Hower:

Yeah, for sure. Um, well, thank you, Zack, for taking the time to chat with us today. If you have any further questions regarding this topic, we actually do have a webinar series coming up focusing on corn silage. By the time this podcast comes out, we will have already hosted our first session on October 22nd, where we'll just uh we discussed hybrid selection and the PDMP trial data from this year. So uh you can go on the Penn State Extension website and watch the recording now. And we have future webinar sessions coming up on December 3rd, and then going into the new year, January 28th, February 25th, and March 25th, we will be covering silage fermentation, additives, reading forage analysis reports, mycotoxin management, and preparation for harvest. Uh you can also uh reach out to either Zack or I. Zack's email is ZUC113@psu.edu, and my email is kzm175@psu.edu. And don't forget to also tune in to next week's episode of the Bovine Banter Podcast, where dairy educator Emily Fread will be talking with Dave Hartman and Anne Beschore of the PA Grazing Lands Coalition on their programs and pasture management. So thanks, guys.