Abstract
The whole corn plant and sugar corn stover were ensiled in stacks covered with plastics and soil. Sorghum was ensiled in tower silo. The amounts of fodder ensiled were 2 500 kg, 3 100 kg and 1400 kg, respectively. All silages were chopped with a precision chopper and ensiled without preservatives. The feeding values of the silages were determined with sheep according to 2 X 3 X 3 Latin square design. Urea (0.3 % of the fresh weight) was added to the silages before feeding. An intense secondary fermentation was found in all silages. The possible causes for this were the soil contamination of the fodder during harvesting and the effluent remained in the stack silages. The secondary fermentation decreased the sugar content of the silages and increased the fermentation losses especially in the corn silage. However, the quality of the silages was fairly good. Urea decreased the palatability of the silages and it would be better to add the urea to the silages before the ensiling. The energy and DCP values of the silages were quite modest. There were 0.63, 0.72 and 0.69 f.u./kg silage DM in sorghum, corn and corn stover silages, respectively The corresponding values for DCP were 75, 62 and 86 g/kg silage DM (urea included).
Highlights
Maize and sorghum are regarded as the best raw materials for silage, becauce the DM yields per hectare are high (5 —l6 tons) and the rich content of soluble sugars makes it possible to ensile the fodder mass without preservatives (Gross and Riebe 1974)
In Finland, the Maize Committee started in 1976 a preliminary experiment in which the ensiling problems were studied
The fermentation losses were determined in the tower silo by weighing the amount of the raw material, the amount of the silage taken off, and the amount of effluent coming from the silo
Summary
Maize and sorghum are regarded as the best raw materials for silage, becauce the DM yields per hectare are high (5 —l6 tons) and the rich content of soluble sugars makes it possible to ensile the fodder mass without preservatives (Gross and Riebe 1974). The secondary fermentation decreased the sugar content of the silages and increased the fermentation losses especially in the corn silage. The raw materials ensiled were Grazer sorghum, fodder corn (several varieties) and sugar corn stover. Corn and sugar corn stover (after the harvesting of ears) were ensiled without preservatives into two horizontal stacks, covered with polyethene sheet and soil.
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