Five silages produced in 1982 were evaluated in two growing trials using 96
steer calves. Forage sorghum silage (heading) was assigned a feeding value of 100.
Based on comparative rates and efficiencies of gain, feeding value for the grain
sorghum silage averaged 107.5 in Trial 1. The non-heading forage sorghum silage
had a value of 64.6 in Trial 1 but only 40.2 before freezing and 31.4 after freezing
in Trial 2. The poor values for the non-heading silages were due, in part, to very
low feed intakes. There was no advantage in harvesting the non-heading sorghum
after a freeze. Rolling the grain sorghum silage to break 95 % of the grain did not
improve its value. In Trial 2, adding alfalfa haylage to the non-heading silages did
increase steer performance.
