Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Artigo Produção Nacional Revisado por pares

BIBTEX RIS

Sorghum silage quality as determined by chemical–nutritional factors

2020; Wiley; Volume: 75; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/gfs.12495

1365-2494

Paulo Henrique Mazza Rodrigues, Lerner Arévalo Pinedo, Paula Marques Meyer, Thiago Henrique da Silva, Iuli Caetano da Silva Brandão Guimarães,

Bioenergy crop production and management

Abstract Sorghum [ Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is an ensilable tropical plant known as a good alternative to maize crops in regions with scarce rainfall. The objective of this trial was to obtain prediction models based on nutritional contents and end products of sorghum silage fermentation as related to the dry‐matter composition of fresh plants before ensiling. Eleven different sorghum cultivars (including silage, graniferous and sweet types) were used. Twenty‐five sorghum plots were harvested between 80 and 120 days of growth. Fifty plastic buckets were used as experimental microsilos and opened between 60 and 90 days of storage. Statistical modelling was used to create a prediction equation that could explain the impact of fresh sorghum composition on the chemical and nutritional composition of its silage. A complex model was detected by stepwise multiple regression to predict the difference of in vitro dry‐matter digestibility (IVDMD) before and after ensiling, but a simpler model, which involved only the sum of water‐soluble carbohydrate (fWSC) and hemicellulose (fHemi) concentrations in the dry matter of fresh forage, was considered to more usable. It had an acceptable coefficient of determination (0.51). The higher amount of WSC and Hemi in fresh sorghum linearly decreased the difference between IVDMD before and after the ensiling process. A WSC concentration of 125.4 g/kg DM in fresh sorghum is recommended for an ideal silage fermentation when considering pH and lactic acid levels, although ethanol levels continued to increase.