Analysis of effect of harvest corn plant in different stages of reproductive and processing of grain on the quality of silage

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at the Department of Animal Production (NUPRAN) State University Midwest (UNICENTRO), with the objective of evaluate the effect of harvesting the maize plant at different reproductive stages and with different grains process on dry matter digestibility, neutral detergent fiber digestibility and animal performance. The experimental design was completely randomized, with four treatments and four replications, where each replication consisted of a pen with two steers, totaling sixteen experimental units. During the silage confection, homogeneous and representative samples from processed plants were collected, part intended for chemical analyses and inserted part in "bags" silo, putting these in the profile of each bunker silo, being considered as experimental units. The experiment lasted 84 days after opining de bunker silos, being 14 days for adaption, followed by 4 periods of 21 days. Thus, silage harvested at dough stage showed higher values of in vitro digestibility of dry matter and neutral detergent fiber. The use of corn silage harvested at R5 stage facilitated better animal performance with consequent transformation of dry matter consumed in daily weight gain.