Influence of harvest time on fumonisin contamination of forage maize for whole-crop silage

• Fumonisin content of maize plants increases rapidly as the infected plants mature.
• Forage maize should be harvested as soon as it reaches the optimal harvest stage.
• Fumonisin contamination risk is also influenced by year and maize hybrid.

Forage maize growing in agricultural fields is often contaminated with fumonisins, a group of mycotoxins produced by Fusarium species. We investigated fumonisin accumulation in maize plants from 2 to 10 wk after silking. Our aim was to determine whether harvesting forage maize earlier could be a practical control measure to reduce the fumonisin contamination in whole-crop silage. In a year with high fumonisin levels, the total fumonisin content (consisting of fumonisins B1, B2, and B3) of the maize plants increased 4–8 wk after silking, indicating that the risk of contamination increases with later harvest times.