Complete Corn Silage Ration for Milking Cows

Soybean meal was added to corn forage at 5% of the fresh weight and stored in a gas-tight silo. The resulting silage contained a forage-to-concentrate dry matter ratio of 87:13 and was fed on an ad lib. basis. Additional concentrate was fed at several levels to explore the animal response expected from other forage:concentrate ratios. Concentrate supplementation providing a 60:40 ratio was near the minimum amount that would adequately support milk production in this experiment.