As indicated previously, moisture was measured by oven-drying at 103°C for 24 h (8). Three samples from each of the five silages were taken for moisture measurement. Mean particle length (MPL) was measured by the standard separator method using five screens and a pan (11). Three samples of about 2 kg each were taken to measure MPL for each of the five silages.

Statistical analyses were done using analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a single factor. The single factor in the first experiment was corn component at five levels: grain, stalk, leaf, husk, and cob. The single factor in the second experiment was silage source at four levels: Binversie Farm (unprocessed, short), Prairie-du-Sac Farm (unprocessed, long), Ziegler Farm (processed, short), and Arlington Farm (processed, long). The single factor in the third experiment was treatment at six levels: fresh silage, partially dried to lose 10 percentage units of moisture, partially dried to lose 20 percentage units of moisture, completely dried in the oven, sieved and fresh, sieved and partially dried to lose 10 percentage units of mois­ture. ANOVA was used to determine significant differences. The least significant difference method was used to rank results (12).

Chemical Analyses

The following components were selected for chemical analyses: five corn components from the first experiment (grain, stalk, leaf, husk, and cob), five whole-plant corn silages from the second experiment, four efflu­ent DMs obtained from the four corn silages in the second experiment, four components from the third experiment (sunk grain, sunk stover, suspended stover, and floating stover). Three replications of each component were analyzed by the UW Soil and Plant Analysis Lab in Marshfield, WI, using wet chemistry for acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), crude protein (CP), minerals (P, Ca, K, Mg), and starch.