Nutritional characteristics and losses on fermentation of corn silage, harvested in different reproductive stages with different grain processing

Abstract

The aim of this study was evaluate the harvest of corn plant in different reproductive stages and different processing grain about losses and nutritive value of silages. Significant differences in the stage of harvest showed up in lower (P 0.05) results found for the R5 stage, which had an average loss of around 5.77%, demonstrating that silage harvested at R5 stage, allow greater dry matter recovery and hence greater savings for the farmer. Regarding the parameter of losses of crude protein, there were no significant differences for the effects of isolated or associated stages of harvesting and processing of grain in corn silage. Large differences can be perceived as the loss of neutral detergent fiber and loss of acid detergent fiber silage, justified by the increase in the levels of acid detergent fiber in the average share of 22.96% in the silage harvested at stage R3 and reduction in their concentration with an average of 4.60% for the R5 stage. No significant differences were observed (P <0.05) for the particle size as the different treatments, only significance being observed as the participation of whole grains in bulk, this ranging on average from 2.59% to 10.27% dry matter, respectively for stage R3 and R4-R5. In general, silage maize plant reproductive stage R5 provided smaller losses nutritious silage storage and greater accumulation of grains in bulk when compared to R3 stage.

Keywords

• Reproductive stages; Nutrient losses; Drying rate; Relative value of silage