The Quality of Grass Silage and Haylage on Farms in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

The aim of this research paper was to determine the value of grass silage and haylage on farms for milk production in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and on the basis of a result analysis to make recommendations for improving the quality of forage and for feeding dairy cows. We analysed samples of grass silage from 10 farms and haylage samples from 17 farms having more than 20 dairy cows in the herd. The following parameters of grass silage and haylage were determined: the degree of acidity (pH), dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), crude cellulose (CC) and mineral matter (MM). The results show a satisfactory level of average pH values (4.76 grass silage, 5.33 haylage), a satisfactory level of DM (29.80% grass silage, 48.26% haylage), low content of CP (grass silage, 11.66%; 12.69% haylage), high content of CC (43.36% grass silage, 42.03% haylage), low content of MM (2.22 grass silage, 2.05 haylage). The results show large variations in all the tested quality parameters. pH value of silage ranged from 3.74 to 5.92, and for haylage from 4.65 to 6.37; DM grass silage 19.10 to 29.80 and haylage from 37.84 to 64.13; CP grass silage from 6.55 to 18.34 and haylage from 7.36 to 24.36; CC grass silage 23.87 to 57.34 and haylage from 25.76 to 63.76; MM grass silage 1.54 to 2.87 and haylage from 2.10 to 2.87.