Effect of corn grain addition on forage quality and production cost of sorghum silage

摘要

The main nutritional problem of sorghum silage is low quality and dry matter (DM) contents. This experiment was conducted to evaluate whether corn grain addition of sorghum silage increases DM content and forage quality, and decreases production cost of the silage. The eight treatments used were: corn silage as a positive control (T1), sorghum silage as a negative control (T2), sorghum silage + 5% corn grain (T3), sorghum silage + 10% corn grain (T4), sorghum silage + 5% wheat bran (T5), sorghum silage + 10% wheat bran (T6), sorghum silage + 5% beet pulp (T7), sorghum silage +10% beet pulp (T8). Corn silage had a low pH value and sorghum silages with added corn grain and beet pulp also had low pH values. However silage added with wheat bran had a high pH value because of its high nitrogen content. Silage added with corn grain had lower acid detergent fiber (ADF) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) contents than other sorghum silages, while silage with beet pulp showed the opposite results. In vitro dry matter disappearance (DMD) of silage added with corn grain was faster than with other sorghum silages, and its production cost per kg DM and total digestible nutrients (TDN) was lowest because of low material cost and high forage quality. Silage added with corn grain (10%) can be recommended as the most effective treatment for increasing forage quality and reducing production cost of sorghum silage.