Animal Nutrition: Did you know Corn silage is high in energy and fermentable carbohydrates, but low in crude protein?
Recently during a farm technical site visit Masaku H& L experts noticed farmers fed their animals only corn and nippier grass silage.
According to our animal nutrition expert, "Feeding cattle an exclusive diet of corn silage and Napier grass silage creates a significant macronutrient imbalance characterized by low crude protein, high fiber, and insufficient essential minerals"
Scientific name Crotalaria juncea, common names globally are Sunnhemp, Indian hemp, Madras hemp, Brown hemp, and Sannhemp is a legume fodder crop.
The expert adds, "While this combination provides excellent energy, relying on it entirely without proper supplementation will lead to severe production drops and metabolic issues".
Farmers can intercrop grasses forage , corn crop and sunn hemp to build soil and produce superhero forage potential.
Sunn Hemp Legume, Highly Recommended
Mixing Sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) with corn (maize) silage increases total crude protein while maintaining high energy and good fermentation quality.
Sunn Hemp: A Super Crop for Forage and Soil Health
Sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) can be used for silage mixed with yellow corn (maize) to boost protein levels.
Sunn hemp is a warm-season legume with a high crude protein content (often ranging from 15% to 30%), which raises the overall nutritional value of the feed.
Sunn hemp seeds available
Nutritional Benefits of the Mix
Corn silage provides high energy, high non-structural carbohydrates, and great palatability, but typically has a low crude protein content of about 6% to 9% on a dry matter basis.
Sunn hemp acts as a high-protein legume forage that boosts nitrogen and protein levels when co-ensiled with maize.
Natural sunn hemp seeds
Legumes alone can be challenging to ensile properly due to lower non-structural carbohydrates, whereas mixing them with corn provides the ideal sugars needed for good fermentation.
How to Blend Sunn Hemp and Corn Silage Mixing ratio
Research shows one can mix sunn hemp and maize at ratios up to 50% sunn hemp (or commonly evaluated combinations like 80-20, 60-40, 40-60, and 20-80 maize-to-sunn hemp proportions).
Fermentation quality Combining the high fermentable carbohydrates of corn with the high protein of sunn hemp yields a well-preserved silage with improved overall relative feed value (RFV) and digestible dry matter without ruining the pH or DLG quality yield.
Can farmers intercrop sunn hemp and corn maize to harvest for silage at the same period?
Farmers can intercrop sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) and corn/maize for silage and harvest them at the same time, though timing and stem quality require careful management.
Harvest Timing Synchronization
Corn is typically ready for silage when the grain reaches the milky-to-dough stage (around 12 to 16 weeks after planting). Sunn hemp matures very fast and can become woody and fibrous if left to flower or go to seed.
To harvest both together for quality silage, sunn hemp must be cut at an early vegetative or very early flowering stage.
Simultaneous planning Sunn hemp and corn can be sown together, which helps the legume fix nitrogen and improve nitrogen-use efficiency.
However, early-planted sunn hemp can sometimes compete vigorously and slightly reduce overall corn forage biomass yield. It's advicable to seed sunn hemp intercropping with corn two weeeks later after seeding corn.
For Sunn Hemp seeds, contact +254710951142
