Fruit agribusiness waste as an additive in elephant grass silage

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential use of fruticulture waste as an additive in elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) cultivar Napier silage at different densities, defining the effect of fermentative quality, microbiological characteristics and bromatological composition. The experimental design was completely randomized with four replications in a 4 x 3 factorial scheme, comprising a control, banana waste (BW), mango waste (MW), and passion fruit waste (PFW) at three densities (400, 500 and 600 kg green matter [GM] m-3). The effect of ensiling density was greatest in the exclusively elephant grass silage, where a compaction of 600 kg GM m-3 contributed to improvements in fermentation and microbiological processes. The addition of banana waste to the elephant grass silage promoted improvements only in bromatological composition, raising the dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), and non-fiber carbohydrate (NFC) content and reducing fiber components (neutral detergent fiber [NDFap] and acid detergent fiber [ADFap] corrected for ash and protein), but the addition of banana waste did not favor the fermentative or microbiological processes. The addition of passion fruit and mango by-products promoted increased DM and favored the fermentative, microbiological, and bromatological silage processes, regardless of density.