EFFECTS OF PERCENT MOISTURE AND COMPACTION PRESSURE ON THE ENSILING OF CORN STOVER IN LABORATORY SILOS

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Abstract
Two experiments were designed to study the effects of moisture percentage and compaction pressure on the ensiling characteristics of corn stover. Both experiments involved the use of airtight laboratory silos of approximately 23-liter capacity. In the first experiment, stover was ensiled under six different vertical pressures ranging from 0 to 169 g/cm2 and the density of the silage mass was measured at 0, 3, 10, 40, and 90 days after ensiling. A procedure was developed, using the relationship between vertical pressure and density, to estimate the relationship between vertical pressure and silage depth for various samples of stover silage. In the second experiment stover was ensiled under two vertical pressures, 37 and 169 g/cm2 and assessed for several quality characteristics at 0, 3, 10, 40, and 90 days after ensiling. Stover ensiled satisfactorily at all initial moisture concentrations (i.e., 66, 65, 54, and 39% moisture) although at a lower moisture percentage samples required longer to ensile. Mold colonies were quickly eliminated at a pH below 4.5 in all silage samples.