Effects of Different Cutting Height on Nutritional Quality of Whole Crop Barley Silage and Feed Value on Hanwoo Heifers.

Dong Hyeon Kim,Adegbola T Adesogan,Hyuk Jun Lee,Young Ho Joo,Sardar M Amanullah,Sam Churl Kim,Ouk Kyu Han

doi:10.5713/ajas.16.0099

Abstract

The present study evaluated the effects of different cutting height on nutritive value, fermentation quality, in vitro and in vivo digestibility of whole crop barley silage. Whole crop barley forage (Yuyeon hybrid) was harvested at height of 5, 10, and 15 cm from the ground level. Each cutting height was rolled to make round bale and ensiled for 100 days. After 100 days of ensiling, pH of silage was lower (p<0.05) in 5 cm, but no difference between 10 and 15 cm of cutting height. The content of lactate and lactate to acetate ratio were increased (p<0.05) in 5 cm of cutting height, whereas the acetate content was higher (p<0.05) in 10 and 15 cm than that of 5 cm cutting height. Aerobic stability was greater (p<0.05) in silages of 10 and 15 cm of cutting height. Three total mixed rations (TMR) were formulated with silages from the three different cutting heights (TMR5, TMR10, and TMR15) incorporated as forage at 70:30 ratio with concentrate (dry matter [DM] basis). In vitro dry matter digestibility was higher (p<0.05) in the TMR5 and TMR10 than that in TMR15, whereas in vitro neutral detergent fiber digestibility was higher (p<0.05) in the TMR10 and TMR15 than that in TMR5. Concentration of NH3-N was highest (p<0.05) in the TMR10 followed by TMR15 and TMR5. Total volatile fatty acid was decreased (p<0.05) with increased cutting height. The digestibility of DM and neutral detergent fiber were highest (p<0.05) in TMR15, than those in TMR5 and TMR10, whereas acid detergent fiber digestibility was higher (p<0.05) in TMR5 than that in TMR10. The results showed that increasing cutting height, at least up to 10 to 15 cm, of whole crop barley forage at harvest (Yuyeon) may be beneficial for making silage for TMR formulation and increasing digestibility of DM and NDF.

Highlights

The forages for feeding cattle in South Korea comprises rice straw (36%), cultivated forage crop (44%), and imported forage (20%) (MIFAFF, 2011)
The crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and acid detergent fiber (ADF) concentration of barley forage was different from the values reported by Yun et al (2009) with same barley hybrid, which might be due to different soil characteristics and harvesting stage of barley forage (Ji et al, 2007; Song et al, 2011)
Fiber concentration in terms of ADF and NDF was decreased both in harvested forage and silage

Summary

Introduction

The forages for feeding cattle in South Korea comprises rice straw (36%), cultivated forage crop (44%), and imported forage (20%) (MIFAFF, 2011). Improvement of nutritional quality of barley forage may help to increase animal productivity and farm profitability. Higher yield of dry matter (DM) and amount of grain from forage (Neylon and Kung, 2003) are considered as quality indicators for whole crop forage or silage. Characteristics may be brought into whole crop forage or silage by increasing the cutting height to make whole crop silage (Weller, 1992; Neylon and Kung, 2003; Caetano et al, 2011; Lynch et al, 2015). Several studies reported that harvesting the forage at higher cutting height can improve nutritive value of silage and animal performance (Sinclair et al, 2003; Kennington et al, 2005; Wu and Roth, 2005).

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Discussion

Conclusion