Corn & Silage
Genetics first—selecting a portfolio of hybrids from Legacy Seeds
The most important step to maximizing your Return on Investment (ROI) in corn production is selecting the right hybrid or group of hybrids for your farm. You most likely will need hybrids that will perform in high yield environments, variable yielding environments and lower producing, more stressful environments. At Legacy Seeds we have hybrids that will perform well in all these environments.
At Legacy Seeds our corn portfolio has three pillars that we live by; genetics first, trait or no trait solutions second and seed treatments with biologicals third. Our hybrids offer high performance with a tremendous amount of genetic diversity which will help mitigate or spread risk on your soils and in your operation. Legacy Seeds corn program is a solution-based program which has many choices and options for your farm from a full line-up of conventional hybrids to hybrids with various levels of traits depending on your needs. We carefully evaluate and select genetics through our Legacy Evaluation Trials (LET) to meet the needs of our growers, whether they produce grain or need high quality silage, using our Ration Choice™ corn silage hybrids (refer to corn silage section). Seed treatments and biologicals are very important in helping to maximizing performance and minimizing stresses.
Silage
Legacy Seeds believes in offering choices to corn silage producers that meet the needs of their dairy or livestock operation. Our RATION CHOICE™ HYBRID (RCH) system allows you, as the producer, to choose which silage system works best for your farm. Our corn silage product portfolio gives you the opportunity to choose from high yielding and high forage quality Flexible Acre varieties and high yielding and ration flexible Leafy silage varieties.
Flexible Acre Hybrids
Flexible Acre (FA) corn silage varieties offer many benefits to the corn silage producer. If you have the need to have more flexibility at harvest time, Flexible Acre varieties can be the right choice. Flexible Acre hybrids that have been tested for forage yield and quality will work best in a 50:50 corn silage / alfalfa rations and where alfalfa is greater than 60% of the forage diet for dairy cattle.
Leafy Silage Hybrids
Using Legacy Brand Leafy Hybrids (LFY) you get more digestible tonnage per acre than typical flexible acre hybrids. Leafy hybrids are bred specifically for corn silage and high moisture shelled corn production. Leafy hybrids consistently have higher stalk and leaf digestibility, along with improved starch digestion due to the use of more floury starch types and softer kernel textures. There are many benefits to using a Leafy Silage Hybrid system: improved dry matter intake, ration flexibility, improved herd health, higher forage yields per acre with less seed cost per acre and superior fiber and starch digestibility. Leafy varieties can be best utilized in dairy rations where corn silage makes up greater than 60% of the forage diet or in an alfalfa diet where RFQ levels are greater than 160%.