Effect of stage of growth on the chemical composition, nutritive value and ensilability of whole-crop barley

Chemical composition, nutritive value and ensilability of whole-crop barley as a supplementary feed for dairy cows was investigated using a range of maturities of barley (seed coat ripe—GS 69, early dough stage—GS 82, soft dough—GS 87 and grain ripe—GS 90) in small scale silos. The ensiling experiment was based on a complete randomised design with three replicate silos per harvest date. Twelve 0.225 m 3 plastic silo (were used in the experiment and silo were sampled on opening for chemical composition and nutritive value. The fermentation process reduced the concentrations of water-soluble carbohydrate in the ensiled forage compared to the fresh forage. The proportion of residual WSC in silage did however increase with increasing crop maturity (0.051, 0.077, 0.167 and 0.560 of WSC retained in the silage after the process of fermentation from forages cut at GS 69, 82, 87 and 90 respectively). Silages that were made from forage cut at the most mature stage of growth had a substantially lower production (P