Intake and Value for Milk Production of Oat Silages Ensiled at Three Stages of Maturity and Preserved with Sodium Metabisulfite

Summary The intake and value for milk production of oats ensiled at three stages of maturity: boot, early-milk, and soft-dough, were compared with each other and with an alfalfa-grass mixed silage. Twelve milking cows were used in an extra-period 4 × 4 Latin square changeover design. In this experiment, the oat silages supplied 86.6–88.0% and the alfalfa-grass silage 86.1% of the total forage dry matter intake. Dry matter intake of the soft-dough stage oats was the highest, but the TDN intake was higher with the boot-stage oats. Differences between oat silages for milk production were correlated with differences in TDN intake from the silages. Acceptable silages were made at all three stages of maturity. It was concluded that the optimum stage to ensile oats is at the boot stage or soon thereafter. Sodium metabisulfite was a satisfactory preservative.