Nutritive value of Elephant grass (.Pennisetum purpureum, Schum), Mineiro and Vruckwona cultivars silage submitted to wilting and to different fermentation additives inhibitors

Abstract

The Elephant grass (.Pennisetum purpureum, Schum), Mineiro and Vruckwona cultivars, were cutted at 75 days of growth and were submitted to 4 treatments for ensilage: wilting under the sun for 8 hours and addition to the fresh and chopped material of 0.5% formol (40% formaldehyde); 0.5% formic acid and 0.2% "Viher" solution (70% formol + 26% formic acid + 4% water). "In vivo" digestibility tests were carried out in sheep. Correlations between the intake and the silage quality parameters were calculated. It was concluded that: a) The wilting and formic acid provided higher apparent digestibility coefficients of crud protein (58.30 and 50.86%, respectively) than the silages subjected to "Viher" solution (45.30X); b) formol decreased the crude protein apparent digestibility coefficient (41.96X); c) in general the dry matter and fibrous components apparent digestibility coefficients were better in the Vruckwona cultivar's silages than Mineiro excluding that treated with formol, which showed different behaviour; d) the digestible dry matter intake (g/kg 0,75) of the silages submitted to wilting (24.25g) was higher than "Viher" solution silages (17.58 g); e) only the wilting and acid formic silages, with T.N.D. intake respective of 350.61 to 434.74 g/day and 358.62 to 371.29 g/day could attend the energetic requirement of sheep maintenance.