LOCATION: North Mississippi Branch Experiment Station, Holly Springs

Mycogen TMF 113, a silage specific corn and Pioneer 3156, a corn hybrid used for silage primarily because of grain yield and reliability in north Mississippi, were planted in alternate 1.5 acre blocks for a total of 6 acres per hybrid. Four replicates of each hybrid were randomly selected for sampling. Each hybrid was chopped with a two row silage cutter and stored individually in 100 ton silage bags.

Mycogen TMF 113 averaged 7.75 inches taller and 4 additional leaf nodes per plant. Silage dry matter per acre was 7.65 tons for Mycogen TMF 113 and 7.31 for Pioneer 3156. Grain yield averaged 163.59 and 153.9 bu/ac for TMF 113 and Pioneer 3156 respectively with Pioneer 3156 having an advantage in plant population of 823 plants per acre and TMF 113 an advantage in ears per plant of .1 more than Pioneer 3156. Both varieties produced extremely well with TMF 113 producing 22.56 tons/acre of 33.84% dry matter silage and Pioneer 3156 22.13 tons/acre of 33.04% dry matter silage. This production was partially due to the field having been in alfalfa production for the previous five years. The next steps in this project are a comparison of forage analysis and a feeding trial using mature lactating Holstein cows to compare milk production, milk components and body condition change resulting from the two silage varieties.