Satellite Symposium 2: Silage
Description
Grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is well adapted to environments with limited rainfall and low soil fertility. Today, on dry land, improved grain sorghum hybrids may be a valid alternative to maize silage and they may give DM yields and digestible energy that are comparable to maize, but at lower production costs (Legarto, 2000). Harvesting crops for silage at an early stage of maturity (low DM content) may result in silage with a higher acid content and low nutritional quality, while harvesting crops at a later stage of maturity may make the forage more difficult to chop and pack. Furthermore, drier silage could be more aerobically unstable during the feed-out phase. The aim of this work was to determine the optimum stage of development for silage purposes and to evaluate the effect of maturity and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) inoculant on the fermentation, nutritional quality and aerobic stability of whole-plant silage produced by grain sorghum grown without irrigation in the Po valley, NW Italy.
Included in
Agricultural Science Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Plant Biology Commons, Plant Pathology Commons, Soil Science Commons, Weed Science Commons
The Effects of the Growth Stage and Inoculant on Fermentation and Aerobic Stability of Whole-Plant Grain Sorghum Silage
Grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is well adapted to environments with limited rainfall and low soil fertility. Today, on dry land, improved grain sorghum hybrids may be a valid alternative to maize silage and they may give DM yields and digestible energy that are comparable to maize, but at lower production costs (Legarto, 2000). Harvesting crops for silage at an early stage of maturity (low DM content) may result in silage with a higher acid content and low nutritional quality, while harvesting crops at a later stage of maturity may make the forage more difficult to chop and pack. Furthermore, drier silage could be more aerobically unstable during the feed-out phase. The aim of this work was to determine the optimum stage of development for silage purposes and to evaluate the effect of maturity and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) inoculant on the fermentation, nutritional quality and aerobic stability of whole-plant silage produced by grain sorghum grown without irrigation in the Po valley, NW Italy.
