Abstract
The cultivation of sorghum for silage production has gained more space each year because of its satisfactory nutritional characteristics, resistance to water deficit and adaptability to various types of soil. Thus, the use of sorghum silage has been an alternative for periods of low forage production, providing quality food for ruminants. In this context, the objective was to evaluate the fermentation parameters and quality of sweet and biomass sorghum silages added with doses of vinasse. The experiment was a 2 x 5 factorial completely randomized design with three replications of two sorghum species (sweet and biomass) and five doses of vinasse applied to the soil: 0; 50; 100; 150 and 200 m3 ha-1, totaling 30 experimental silos. For silage, sorghum species were harvested in the 105-day cycle, with 30.5 and 32.3 g kg-1 dry matter, for biomass and sweet sorghum, respectively. The results showed that the biomass sorghum silage showed higher dry mass production. However, the sweet sorghum silage presented a lower buffering capacity, NH3-N, and higher concentration of lactic acid. Doses of vinasse increased the content of crude protein, in vitro digestibility of dry matter and ether extract and reduced fiber fractions in both sorghum species, showing that both species can be used for silage production. Vinasse is a promising alternative to organic fertilizer, since the use of 200 m3 ha-1 positively influenced the fermentation parameters and nutritional value of the sorghum silages.
Highlights
The Central region of Brazil is characterized by two well-defined seasons in the year, the dry and the rainy season, which causes a seasonality in forage production, interfering with the supply of forage, nutritional composition and the performance of ruminants
The experiment was a 2 x 5 factorial completely randomized design, with three replications, with two sorghum species and with five doses of vinasse applied to the soil: 0; 50; 100; 150 and 200 m3 ha-1, totaling 30 experimental silos
Sorghum species were harvested in the 105-day cycle, with 30.5 and 32.3 g kg-1 dry matter, for biomass and sweet sorghum, respectively, at 20 cm from the ground, using a backpack brush cutter
Summary
The Central region of Brazil is characterized by two well-defined seasons in the year, the dry and the rainy season, which causes a seasonality in forage production, interfering with the supply of forage, nutritional composition and the performance of ruminants. Sweet sorghum stands out for the high potential for mass production for silage making, due to greater resistance to water stress, high photosynthetic capacity and production in low fertility soils, excellent balance between stalks, leaves and panicles, combined with good productivity of dry mass and nutritional value (Molina, 2000). Besides that, it contains directly fermentable sugars, which contributes to good silage fermentation (Nagaiah et al, 2012)
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