Production and quality of silages pearl millet and paiaguas palisadegrass in monocropping and intercropping in different forage systems

Abstract

ABSTRACT:With the arrival of new early genotypes and high nutritive value and productive potential, millet has been gaining prominence in recent years for the production of silage, and it promises lower costs of production. Thus, the consortium of millet with tropical forages can increase the production of silage, providing more food to be used in the offseason, where there is low availability of forage. The objective of this study was to evaluate the dry mass production, fermentative characteristics and chemical-bromatological of pearl millet silage and Paiaguas palisadegrass in monocropping and intercropping in different forage systems in the second cropping season. The experimental design consisted of randomized blocks with four replicates. The treatments consisted of silage of the following forage systems: monocropped pearl millet, monocropped Paiaguas palisadegrass, pearl millet intercropped in rows with Paiaguas palisadegrass, pearl millet intercropped inter-row with Paiaguas palisadegrass, and pearl millet oversown and intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass (totaling 20 experimental plots). The consortium of pearl millet with Paiaguas palisadegrass contributed to raise the dry matter contents of the silages, except in the system using the overgrowth. Pearl millet silages monocropped and intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass presented reductions in pH and ammoniacal nitrogen values as well as favor lactic fermentation. Pearl millet monocropped and intercropped silage exhibited better fermentative and bromatological characteristics than silage obtained from monocropped Paiaguas palisadegrass. Therefore, creating silage from intercropped forages provides an interesting supplemental roughage option that can be used during the offseason for animal feeding.

Agro-economic efficiency dynamics in vegetable cowpea and radish cultivar combinations in strip-intercropping systems

“…Corroborating these results, Costa et al (2018) evaluated millet and Paiaguas palisadegrass silage in monocrop and mixed systems under different forage systems and reported that millet silage in the monocrop system showed a lower buffering capacity than Paiaguas palisadegrass, which had the highest value. Behling Neto et al (2017) found that the lowest values for buffer capacity may have been observed for cultivars of sweet sorghum (BRS 506) in the first harvest due to the lower amounts of ash and crude protein in sorghum than in the other tested silages; this result is in accordance with the results for the pure sorghum silage in the present study.…”

“…Among the various tropical forage options, we highlight Paiaguas palisadegrass, which has good yield, good vigour, a high leaf:stem ratio and good nutritional value (R. R. G. F. Costa et al, 2018). The hybrid BRS Ipypora, introduced in 2017, is the result of a cross between Brachiaria ruziziensis and Brachiaria brizantha and is considered an important forage alternative for pasture-based animal production systems due to its quality as forage.…”

Production and quality of sunflower and Paiaguas palisadegrass silage in monocropped and intercropping in different forage systems

“…BRS Paiaguas is a great option, the plant attends all the requirements needed in different systems of production, encompassing different technological levels (Costa et al, 2016). Besides that, the forage has been used for the production of silage in integrated systems, allowing great results (Santos et al, 2016;Costa et al, 2018;Souza et al, 2019;Oliveira et al, 2020). Cruvinel et al (2017) reported that the silage of additive sunflowers with tropical forages are able to bring great benefits to the quality of the silage, for example, decrease in the content of ethereal extract, in the fibers of acid detergents, lignin, in addition to the production of silage in the off season, with good quality and with sufficient amount for nutritional maintenance of ruminants.…”

Production and quality of the silage of corn intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass in different forage systems and maturity stages

“…Scarcity of roughage and loss of forage nutritional value are obstacles to cattle production in the tropics, consequently, resulting in low animal performance. In this sense, the production of intercropping systems of annual crops with tropical forages enables to increase the availability of quality forage for livestock feed in a sustainable way in the off-season, besides the benefits to the system, with recovery/ renewal of degraded pastures, quality, especially in the off-season, where there is low production and quality of forage (Costa et al, 2018).…”

“…Paiaguas palisadegrass is a forage that has high leaf blade:stem ratio and is now considered a cultivar of great importance in the crop-livestock integration system, for presenting regrowth in the dry period of the year, with greater accumulation of forage of better nutritive value (Costa et al, 2018).…”