Harvesting practices such as cutting height are known to alter whole-plant corn silage nutritive value and biomass yield. However, there is no consensus in the literature about the optimum cutting height threshold to balance nutritive value and biomass yield. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of cutting height on nutrient composition and yield of whole-plant corn silage through a meta-analytic approach using a data set comprised of 10 published studies and 64 treatments means. Cutting height was the sole independent variable used in the present study. Dependent variables were DM, starch, and NDF, concentrations, as well as ruminal in vitro or in situ NDF digestibility (NDFD), DM yield, and milk production per area or per Mg of fresh silage (estimated using the Milk2006 predictive equations). Data were analyzed using PROC MIXED in SAS; the model included the fixed effect of treatment and the random effect of trial. Means and standard deviations for dependent and independent variables were as follows: cutting height (36 ± 21, cm), DM (36.4 ± 4.3, % of as fed), NDF (40.2 ± 4.7, % of DM), starch (25.3 ± 9.3, % of DM), NDFD (58.9 ± 12.8, % of DM), DM yield (14.9 ± 2.5 t/ha), milk production/Mg (1682, ± 289, kg/Mg), and milk production per area (19317 ± 3522, Mg/ha). Yield of DM was reduced (P = 0.001) by 0.05 Mg/ha for each cm of increased cutting height. However, for each cm increase in cutting height there was an increase (P < 0.05) of 0.09, 0.08, and 0.08%-units in DM, starch, and NDFD, respectively. Conversely, there was a negative linear effect (P < 0.05) for NDF, with a 0.10%-unit decrease per cm increase in cutting height. There was a decrease (P < 0.05) in milk production per area of 37.8 kg/ha for each cm increase in cutting height, whereas there was a tendency (P = 0.09) to increase milk production by 1.868 kg/Mg of fresh silage for each cm increase in cutting height. These equations indicate that increasing cutting height improves forage quality, at the expense of DM biomass yield. Therefore, caution is needed when planting area is limited.