Colorful infrared images of bunk faces have become all the rage with consultants and sales people wanting to promote forage quality and silage additives. One company claims that infrared cameras can show the value of inoculants. Another may state that an infrared image can reveal how well a bunker is packed and covered. Someone else may suggest that infrared images tell only a fraction of the silage quality story.

Legendary commentator Paul Harvey always ended his daily lunchtime radio broadcasts with the affirmation, “Now you know the rest of the story.” I’m not so sure we’ll ever know the “rest of the story” when it comes to all the factors affecting total tract starch digestibility. In a previous issue of Progressive Dairyman this past spring, I explored the influence of corn silage processing on the resulting fecal starch.

We’ve all heard it said, “The proof is in the pudding.” However, the pudding we’re talking about in this article is no dessert fare. It’s actually the final byproduct of rumen and lower tract digestion. And while the absolute proof may not lie in the pudding, it certainly carries some strong evidence regarding starch digestibility.