Evaluation of the chemical composition of woody forage silages of the Brazilian semiarid

Abstract

The aim of this work was to evaluate the chemical composition of the woody forage silage in the completely randomized design with six treatments and four replications. The treatments consisted of forage species: Prosopis juliflora, Mimosa tenuiflora, Mimosa caesalpiniifolia, Gliricidia sepium and Leucaena leucocephala. It was found that the silages jurema preta, jucá and sabiá, showed higher levels of DM more than 35 %. Leucena silage presented a higher content of CP (22.40 %) and higher pH (5.5), while the algaroba silage presented lowest level of EE (2.83 %). Higher levels of N-NH3 (10.93 %) and TDN (66.94 %) and lowest content of lignin (3.79 %) were found for gliricidia silage. Sabia silage presented a higher content of NDF (64.09%), while its ADF valor (35.54%) was similar to jurema preta silage (35.76 %). Algaroba and gliricidia silages presented highest levels of NFC (28.32 and 26.86%, respectively) and lower hemicellulose (13.39 and 12.65%, respectively). Leucena and gliricidia silages showed lower levels of cellulose with 14.77 and 15.53%, respectively. The woody forage silages studied in this work shown a good quality and can be used as sources in animal feed.