El objetivo fue evaluar fechas de corte y del uso de aditivos sobre la calidad del ensilado de la planta entera de girasol. La variedad forrajera (Rumbosol-91) se cosechó en las semanas 1, 3 y 5 post-floración (F1, F2 y F3, respectivamente) y tratada con los siguientes aditivos: 1) 1.5 × 105 ufc de inoculante g-1 de forraje, a base de bacterias lácticas homofermentativas Enterococcus faecium, Pediococcus pentosaceus y Lactobacillus plantarum (INOC), 2) 3 ml kg-1 de forraje de una solución al 85% de ácido fórmico (FORM) y 3) sin aditivo (Testigo); siguiendo un diseño factorial 3x3 con cinco repeticiones. La producción de efluente y las pérdidas totales de materia seca (MS) se redujeron, desde 282 y 134 g kg-1 en F+1 hasta 96 y 87 g kg-1 en F+5 como resultado del alto contenido de humedad del forraje próxima a la floración. El análisis NIRS de las muestras de ensilaje mostró que los contenidos de proteína, fibra y digestibilidad descendían significativamente con la madurez de la planta; la rápida acumulación de aceite en la MS hizo que la concentración energética fuese superior en el estado fenológico más avanzado. La calidad fermentativa de los ensilajes fue satisfactoria, independientemente del momento de corte y del uso de aditivo. Se concluye que es preferible el corte de la planta a las cinco semanas post-floración, donde se espera una fermentación aceptable sin necesidad de conservantes.
Small-scale dairy systems are an option to ameliorate rural poverty in developing countries. These systems need to enhance their productivity through improved feeding strategies. The objective was to assess in a participatory on-farm experiment the effect on dairy cow performance of the inclusion of sunflower silage (SFS) with maize silage (MSL) during the dry season in three treatments: T1= 100% MSL, T2= 50% MSL/50% SFS, and T3= 75% MSL/25% SFS. Cows grazed 8 h/day, received 6.8 kg DM/cow/day of silage treatments, and 4.6 kg DM/cow/day of commercial concentrate (as decided by the collaborating farmer). Design was a 3x3 Latin Square replicated three times with nine Holstein cows, and 14-day experimental periods. Analysed variables were milk yield and composition, live weight and body condition score; as well as chemical composition of feeds and feeding costs. There were significant differences with a higher milk yield and higher milk fat content in T2 than T1 with intermediate values for T3; but no significant differences for protein (mean 31.4 ± 6.1 g/kg), lactose (45.1 ± 3.4 g/kg), pH (6.5 ± 0.16) or milk urea nitrogen (10.5 ± 0.81mg/dL). There were highly significant differences in live weight with T3 recording a lower live weight than T1 or T2, but no differences between treatments for body condition score (mean 2.3). Feeding costs were lowest for T2 and highest for T1. The inclusion of SFS at 50% with MSL to complement grazing dairy cows of moderate milk yields is an alternative to increase milk yields and income in small-scale dairy systems.
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