Elephant grass silages with or without wilting, with cassava meal in silage production

Abstract

SUMMARYThe experiment was developed to evaluate the effects of wilting and inclusion of cassava meal level on nutritive value, fermentative characteristics and losses of elephant grass silage. The 4 x 2 factorial scheme was adopted, with four repetitions, in a completely randomized design. The factors evaluated were wilting (without and with) and cassava meal level (0; 7.5; 15 and 22.5% of natural matter, DN). PVC silos with 50 cm height and 10 cm diameter were used for silages production, which were opened after 60 days. The wilting and cassava meal addition had increasing linear effect on DM content. Silages with cassava meal showed reduction of total nitrogen, ether extract, acid detergent insoluble nitrogen, neutral detergent fiber ash and protein free, acid detergent fiber, celluloses, hemicelluloses and lignin contents and increase of organic matter content, DM in vitro digestibility and total digestible nutrients. Relative to variables inherent to silages' fermentative characteristics, pH presented quadratic behavior. Concerning to ammonia nitrogen, it was observed quadratic and decreasing linear behavior for silages without and with wilting, respectively. Wilting and cassava meal inclusion provided smaller effluent losses.

Elephant grass cv. BRS capiaçu silage with inclusion of different proportions of silk cotton

“…Evaluating elephant grass silages combined with 0, 20, 40 and 60% wedge (Clitoria ternatea), Oliveira et al (2017) found a reduction in NDF contents from 67.72 to 56.04%, as well as in NDF contents, from 44.57 to 42.03% assuming a decreasing linear effect, corroborating the results obtained herein.…”

“…When it is not possible to use additives to increase the dry matter content of the mixed silage cotton to silk, pre-wilting elephant grass BRS capiaçu constitutes an auxiliary measure to be considered and can help in achieving suitable DM contents (Ribas et al, 2021). Thus, Oliveira et al (2017) analyzed elephant grass silages, with and without pre-wilting, and with and without inclusion of cassava meal, and demonstrated that pre-wilting increases silage DM.…”

Silage Quality and Preference of Elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) with Varying Levels of Poultry dropping and Cassava Peel by West African Dwarf Goats

“…This result indicates that cassava peel improved energy concentration in the silage and could enhance feed utilization. This agrees with the observation ofOliveira (2008) who reported improved nutrient utilization in elephant grass ensiled with increasing levels of cassava meal. This probably represents the optimum protein-energy ratio in the silage mixtures, leading to optimum conditions for rumen microbes and improved digestibility(Preston and Leng, 2009).…”

“…All the silages were firm in texture though with varying degree of moistness.The colour, smell and texture of silage apparently improved with higher proportions of cassava peel in the mixture. This confirms earlier reports that cassava meal or peel had positive influence on silage characteristics of tropical forages(Oliveira, 2008;Olorunnisomo, 2011). The temperature of fermenting forage varying from 27 0 c to 38 0 c was presumed to produce excellent silage.…”

Valor nutritivo e características fermentativas da silagem de capim-elefante com diferentes proporções de raízes de mandioca

“…Teores de MS em silagens de capim-elefante abaixo de 25% também foram relatados em estudos com a adição de palma-forrageira (Monção et al, 2020), farelo de mandioca (Oliveira et al, 2017), cascas de banana desidratada (Brant et al, 2017), casca de maracujá in natura (Lira Júnior et al, 2018) e milho e glicerina (Tonin et al, 2018). Revelando que, no momento da escolha do aditivo para a silagem, é importante se levar em consideração a natureza da matéria-prima e as possíveis implicações da mesma na qualidade final da forragem.…”