Corn silage forage quality: Hybrid genetics versus growing conditions
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Over the past four years a number of groups in the Northeast have initiated efforts to increase collaboration and enhance our understanding of corn silage hybrid forage quality through existing Corn Silage Hybrid Evaluation programs. This collaboration includes Cornell University, Penn State University, Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania, University of Vermont, Western New York Crop Management Association, and the University of Maine. The group has focused their efforts in three main areas: 1) aligning trial methods and report formatting to allow better cross-referencing of trial data from the various programs, 2) focusing on emerging forage quality parameters to improve the metrics utilized for better cross-referencing of trial data from the various programs, 2) focusing on emerging forage quality parameters to improve the metrics utilized for hybrid comparisons, and 3) utilizing data from across the region to better understand the influence of growing conditions on hybrid performance. This collaboration allowed us to identify a small subset of hybrids entered into multiple programs over the last two years. Differences in performance between the same genetics in different growing environments and different genetics in the same growing environment of this subset were compared.