Abstract
The objective in this work was to determine the nutritive value of high and low tannin high-moisture sorghum grain silage in horse feeding by means of digestibility. A total of eight crossbred geldings at the age of six years and an average body weight of 330 kg were used in a complete randomized design with samples replicated on the same animals. The test-diets consisted of the ensiled high and low tannin sorghum grains replacing 30% of the dry matter of the reference diet, constituted exclusively by hay. The daily dry matter intake was equivalent to 2.0% of the body weight, so, the test diets were constituted by 30% of ensiled sorghum grains and 70% of hay. The digestibility coefficients of the nutrients of the low and high tannin sorghum grain silages were obtained by the difference between the coefficient of digestibility of the nutrients of the reference diet and the test-diets. The values of digestibility of dry matter, energy and protein of the high tannin sorghum grain silage were lower (73.65, 73.65 and 71.33%) than low tanin sorghum grain silage (87.70, 87.70 and 82.36%). The contents of digestible dry matter, digestible protein, digestible starch, digestible neutral detergent fiber and digestible energy were 59.08%, 10.63%, 71.48%, 2.32% and 3,954 Mcal/kg of dry matter of the low tannin sorghum grain silage and 50.58%, 8.16%, 67.80%, 3.72% and 3,192 Mcal/kg of the dry matter of high tannin sorghum grain silage, respectively, therefore, only contents of digestible neutral detergent fiber and starch were similar among silages. The use of low tannin sorghum grain silage, an alternative food in formulation of promising diets for horses feeding.
Highlights
The feeding by concentrate feeds is important for the maintenance of health and meeting of the nutrient requirements of the several horse categories
The use of high moisture silages in horse production come to corroborate with the search for the reducing of the costs with feeding, as well as for obtaining processed grains resulting into the increase of their nutritive value
The coefficient of digestibility of dry matter, crude protein, gross energy and neutral detergent fiber differed among the diets with higher values and the diet made up of coast-cross hay and low tannin high moisture sorghum grain silage (P
Summary
The feeding by concentrate feeds is important for the maintenance of health and meeting of the nutrient requirements of the several horse categories. The use of high moisture silages in horse production come to corroborate with the search for the reducing of the costs with feeding, as well as for obtaining processed grains resulting into the increase of their nutritive value. Oliveira et al (2007) evaluated the use of high moisture sorghum grain silages with both high and low tannin contents in the feeding of mares at maintenance compared with those of dry sorghum grain. There is no information about the digestible nutrient contents of sorghum grain silages It is important the development of research which give priority to the use of low cost technologies and which will be able to increment the tables with information of the ingredients of the diet formulation programs. The present work is intended to evaluate the nutritive value of silage of low and high tannin sorghum grain silage in horses
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