Corteva dropped a proverbial bomb on the dairy industry this summer when they announced they are exiting the BMR corn business. When Dow (with their Mycogen and Dairyland brands) and DuPont (with their Pioneer brand) merged, they controlled virtually the whole BMR market in the U.S. While KingFisher has had some success with their BMR line, it will be awhile before they can ramp production to fill the Corteva void.
This leaves farmers and their dairy nutritionists looking for different options. One of the most popular will be “short corn”. Let’s look at its pros and cons.
Short corn isn’t new. The first variety I looked at was about 20 years ago. It was originally developed for grain producers as a way to have less input needs, less fodder to deal with, better standability and the ability to spray its whole life. Corteva, Bayer and others are bringing out new hybrids with these characteristics.
Those characteristics positively impact forage quality. The shorter stature and increased leaf/stem ratio increases the fiber digestibility by a few points. The lower fodder yield increases the starch percentage, and it is not uncommon to see 40% to 45% starch samples.
The combination of increased starch and digestibility can make Milk Per Ton numbers that look similar to a BMR. It is not a BMR, though, and will have to be fed much differently.
Because of the higher starch, the UNDF240 as a percentage of Dry Matter may be similar. However, the UNDF240 percentage of fiber is still noticeably higher. This will likely limit forage intake or performance.
Farms who switch to short corn will likely feed less silage and bring in other digestible fiber sources, such as soy hulls, gluten or beet pulp. This can help maintain production but can also complicate nutrient management plans as more nutrients are imported.
The quality of short corn is good the entire way to the ground. To limit yield loss, farms should chop as low to the ground as possible and have a discussion with their harvester..
It will be important for farmers to communicate with nutritionists and not just listen to a company’s talking points. Many of the same company people who (rightly) promoted BMR will change their narrative now that it is going away.
Millions of high-producing cows are fed without BMR. It certainly can be done, but high milk production will get harder for farms who had developed a management system around it.
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