Elephant Grass Silage Research Articles

English

The high generation of organic residues from the intensive farming of chickens has induced their use as fertilizer for forage crop production. This aimed to evaluate the effect of poultry litter application on agronomic traits and quality of silage of elephant grass. The experiment was conducted in the experimental field of Boa Vista Farm, in district of Cachoeira de Santa Cruz, Vicosa, State of Minas Gerais, in sandy argisol. The experimental period was from November 2014 to February 2015 and the treatments consisted of four levels of fermented poultry litter (0, 4, 8 and 12 ton.ha-1) with five repetitions. Evaluations consisted of measurements of plant height, stem diameter, number of plants.ha-1 and green mass yield. In relation to silage, measurements of gas losses, effluents and total losses were performed using the four treatments cited and four repetitions. There was a positive linear effect (P 0.05) on the stem diameter, green mass yield and silage quality. Key words: Organic waste, Pennisetum purpureum Schum, poultry litter, productivity, qualitative parameters.

Effects of wilting and lactic acid bacteria inoculation on fermentation and microbial community of elephant grass silage produced in Vietnam

AbstractDirect‐cut (dry matter [DM] 165 g kg−1) and wilted (DM 250 g kg−1) elephant grass silages were prepared in Hue, Vietnam, with and without a mixture of Lactobacillus paracasei and Lactococcus lactis (LP+LC) or Lactobacillus buchneri (LB). The silages were stored for 4 months, and fermentation products and aerobic stability were determined. The microbial community was assessed using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Acetate was predominantly produced during the fermentation of control and LB‐inoculated silages, whereas the content was not sufficient to inhibit aerobic spoilage for 7 days in control silage. The LP+LC inoculation greatly enhanced lactate content, suppressed the alcohol content, and did not improve aerobic stability or decrease the total fungal population. The bacterial community and L. buchneri populations were similar between control and LB‐inoculated silages; however, Kluyveromyces delphensis was undetectable and the total fungal population was lowered in LB‐inoculated silage.

Fruit agribusiness waste as an additive in elephant grass silage

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.

Elephant grass silages with or without wilting, with cassava meal in silage production

SUMMARY The experiment was developed to evaluate the effects of wilting and inclusion of cassava meal level on nutritive value, fermentative characteristics and losses of elephant grass silage. The 4 x 2 factorial scheme was adopted, with four repetitions, in a completely randomized design. The factors evaluated were wilting (without and with) and cassava meal level (0; 7.5; 15 and 22.5% of natural matter, DN). PVC silos with 50 cm height and 10 cm diameter were used for silages production, which were opened after 60 days. The wilting and cassava meal addition had increasing linear effect on DM content. Silages with cassava meal showed reduction of total nitrogen, ether extract, acid detergent insoluble nitrogen, neutral detergent fiber ash and protein free, acid detergent fiber, celluloses, hemicelluloses and lignin contents and increase of organic matter content, DM in vitro digestibility and total digestible nutrients. Relative to variables inherent to silages’ fermentative characteristics, pH presented quadratic behavior. Concerning to ammonia nitrogen, it was observed quadratic and decreasing linear behavior for silages without and with wilting, respectively. Wilting and cassava meal inclusion provided smaller effluent losses.

Fermentation characteristics and nutritional quality of elephant grass silage added the buriti fruit peel

The objective of this research was to evaluated the inclusion of buriti fruit peel as additive on the fermentation profile, losses, chemical composition and degradability of elephant grass silage. We used a completely randomized design with five levels of buriti fruit peel (0, 50, 100, 200 and 400 g kg-1). The silos were opened after 28 days of storage. In situ degradability monitoring was conducted using a split-plot design in which four animals represented the blocks and silage supplemented with five levels of buriti fruit peel represented the treatments. The use of the additive in elephant silage increased dry matter (DM) (P < 0.001), ether extract (EE) (P < 0.001), ash (P < 0.001), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) (P < 0.001) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) (P= 0.0000). The pH (P= 0.0000), N-NH3 (P = 0.024) and there was a decrease in gas losses (P < 0.001), effluent losses and dry matter recovery (P = 0.218) not were influenced by the addition of buriti fruit peel. The inclusion of buriti fruit peel linearly reduced the ruminal degradability DM of soluble fraction (a) (P < 0.001) and potentially degradable insoluble fraction (b) (P < 0.001). The DM content increase with the addition of the buriti fruit peel to the elephant grass silage promotes improvements in the fermentation process, reduces losses of nutrients and ruminal disappearance of dry matter and does not significantly change the chemical composition with the inclusion of 166.7 g kg-1 of the buriti fruit peel.

<b>Fermentative characteristics and nutritional value of elephant grass silage added with dehydrated banana peel

The aim of this study was to evaluate the fermentative losses and nutritional value of elephant grass silages with the increasing of inclusion levels of dehydrated banana peel. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design, with six treatments and four replications, being the silage exclusively from elephant grass, and five levels of inclusion of banana peel to the elephant grass silage, as the following - 5; 10; 15; 20 and 25%, being added based on natural matter. The addition of the banana peel in the silage reduced linearly (p < 0.05) the pH, the ammoniacal nitrogen and the losses of the fermentative process. In addition, the inclusion of banana peel increased linearly (p < 0.05) the dry matter and non-fibrous carbohydrates. On the other hand, the neutral detergent fiber and the acid detergent fiber were linearly reduced with the inclusion of the banana peel (p < 0.05), but there was no change in the dry matter digestibility in situ. The inclusion of dehydrated banana peel in elephant grass silage reduces the losses of the fermentation process with more consistent results at the 25% inclusion level, however, it reduces the silage nutritional value due to fibrous and protein quality.

Impacts of citrus pulp addition and wilting on elephant grass silage quality

The objective of this work was to evaluate the use of citrus pulp addition and wilting on fermentative characteristics, chemical composition as well as gas and effluent losses of elephant grass silage. The elephant grass (70 growth days) was collected manually; one portion was immediately chopped and another one was allowed to wilt in the sun for a period of 6 h and subsequently chopped for the production of silage. Experimental PVC silos (10 cm diameter x 30 cm height) were used and sand bags were placed at the bottom of the silos. Citrus pulp (80 g kg-1 of MN) was added at the beginning of ensilage. The ensiled material was manually compressed to provide a specific mass of approximately 600 kg m-3 of silage. After 60 days, the silos were opened; gas and effluent losses were calculated and we determined pH, dry matter (DM), crude protein(CP), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), lignin, ammonia nitrogen, ash and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD). We added 0 or 80 g kg-1 of citrus pulp to wilted and un-wilted elephant grass. We used a completely randomised design with a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement (wilted or un-wilted) x (with or without citrus pulp), totalling treatments with five repetitions. Average values were compared using the F test with a probability of 5%. The addition of citrus pulp resulted in reduced levels of NDF, lignin, ash, N-NH3 and pH and in increased values of DM and IVDMD of silages. Wilting increased the DM, NDF and lignin values and reduced the concentrations of CP, IVDMD and N-NH3. Based on our results, citrus pulp addition improves the chemical composition of elephant grass silage and increases its in vitro dry matter digestibility.

Characterization and Identification of Lactic Acid Bacteria by 16S rRNA Gene Sequence and Their Effect on the Fermentation Quality of Elephant Grass (Pennisetum purpureum) Silage

Characterization and Identification of Lactic Acid Bacteria by 16S rRNA Gene Sequence and Their Effect on the Fermentation Quality of Elephant Grass (Pennisetum purpureum) Silage

Behavior of sheep fed babassu cake (Orbygnia speciosa) as a substitution for elephant grass silage.

This study aimed to evaluate the behavior of sheep fed babassu cake as a substitution for elephant grass silage. The experiment was conducted at the Federal Rural University of Amazonia (Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia - UFRA), Brazil, using 45 sheep housed in individual stalls, with unlimited access to feed and distributed in a completely randomized design with five treatments (0, 12.5, 25, 37.5 and 50% inclusion of babassu cake) and nine replications. All of the treatments contained a roughage-to-concentrate ratio of 40:60. No differences were observed in the time spent feeding (P>0.05), regardless of the source of roughage used. However, there was a reduction in the time spent in rumination (P<0.05) and an increase in time spent idling (P<0.05) when babassu cake was included in the diet. Although there was a reduction in the time spent chewing the ruminal bolus (P<0.05), the total daily chewing time was the same for all animals (P>0.05). However, the sheep fed babassu cake showed higher feeding and rumination efficiency (P<0.05). Therefore, the substitution of elephant grass silage with babassu cake can be performed at up to 50% without compromising the total time spent eating and chewing, which allows increased feeding and rumination efficiency.

&lt;b&gt;Elephant grass silage with the addition of crambe bran conjugated to different specific mass

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of inclusion of crambe bran concentrations (Crambe abyssinica Hochst.) with different specific masses in elephant grass silage (Penninsetum purpureum Schum.). For that, the bromatological and microbiological compositions of the experimental silages were determined. We used 48 mini silos distributed in a completely randomized design, arranged in a factorial 4 × 3, four levels of inclusion of crambe bran (0; 10; 20 and 30%) and three specific masses (400; 500 and 600 kg MN m-3), with four replications. After 240 days of fermentation the silos were opened. It was observed linear effect on DM, CP, NDFap, ADFap, HEM, LIG, NFC, TC and population of bacteria that produce lactic acid with the addition of crambe meal. There was interaction between the crambe bran factors and specific masses on the values of pH and N-NH3. For MM variables and yeast count there was a negative linear effect due to the evaluated specific mass. The inclusion of crambe bran helps to increase the fermentative profile and the bromatological composition of elephant grass silages studied, and the best results were obtained with the addition of 30% of this coproduct, based on the natural matter.

Performance and metabolite profile of dairy cows fed tropical grasses and concentrates containing crude protein with low or high degradability

Ten Holstein-Zebu crossbred cows distributed into two simultaneous Latin squares (5 × 5) as a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement formed by chopped sugarcane or elephant grass silage, both with high or low protein degradability supplements and a corn silage as a control treatment, were compared using orthogonal contrasts. The studied variables were the performance, plasma concentrations of urea-N, glucose, and creatinine, urine-N and milk urea-N, and the nychthemeral variation in NH3-N in the rumen fluid of dairy cows. Nutrient intake, milk production, and milk composition were affected by the treatments. The total mixed ration containing elephant grass silage combined with rumen undegradable protein (RUP) provided balanced amounts of carbon and nitrogen in the rumen. This effect may explain the 18% increase in milk yield compared with the other treatments. The diurnal pattern of ruminal NH3-N was interpreted with a sinusoid model. In general, cows fed elephant grass silage exhibited higher concentrations of blood plasma and milk urea-N than animals fed sugarcane. The cows that consumed elephant grass silage with rumen degradable protein concentrate showed a higher milk urea-N compared with animals that consumed elephant grass silage with the RUP concentrate. The use of diets based on corn silage leads to a better use of nitrogen compounds because these diets resulted in lower levels of urea-N in the plasma, urine, and milk at the same level of milk production compared with diets containing elephant grass silage or chopped sugarcane as roughages. In sugarcane-based diets, even greater nitrogen losses in the urine are observed, despite the presence of readily fermentable carbohydrates in the diet.

Nutritional evaluation of elephant-grass silages with different levels of by-products from the cashew juice industry

This study was conducted to evaluate the intake, apparent digestibility (AD), and degradability in situ of elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schum) silages containing 0, 35.0, 70.0, 105.0, and 140.0 g kg-1 by-product from dried cashew apple (DCBP) (as fed basis). A completely randomized design with four replicates was adopted. For the study of degradability in situ, one adult male cattle was used in a completely randomized design with split plots. Intake and AD of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), hemicellulose, and cellulose were evaluated, and the digestible energy (DE) and nitrogen balance (NB) of the silages were determined. The degradability in situ of DM, CP, and NDF was also determined. Addition of DCBP provided an increase in the intakes of DM, CP, NDF, and ADF. No effects of the levels of addition of DCBP were observed on the coefficients of AD of the silages. Regarding NB, positive values were only detected in the treatment with 105.0 g kg-1 DCBP. In the analysis of the degradability in situ, the incubation periods increased the rates of disappearance of DM, CP, and NDF. However, no effect of the levels of DCBP were observed on the effective degradability of DM. The by-product from dried cashew apple can be included at up to 140.0 g kg-1 in silages of elephant grass, but the high contents of acid detergent insoluble nitrogen may compromise the use and availability of nitrogen to the animals.

Mixed silage of elephant-grass and leucaena: crude protein and minerals

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of the addition of leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala) on the crude protein and minerals in silage of elephant-grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schum. cv. Napier). The experimental design was completely randomized design with three replications and three treatments: T1) 100% of elephant-grass var. Napier, T2) 80% of elephant-grass var. Napier + 20% leucaena var. BRA 1911 and T3) 60% of elephant-grass var. Napier + 40% leucaena var. BRA 1911. The addition of 20% and 40% of leucaena var. BRA 1911 increased significantly (P

Effects of different additives on chemical composition and pH of elephant grass silages

This work aimed to verify the efficiency of different additives on the chemical composition and fermentation parameters of elephant grass silage. The planting of elephant grass cv. Napier (Pennisetum purpureum Schum.) It was done in pits 25 cm deep with spacing lines of 80 cm after tillage. Elephant grass was harvested at 180 days of age and broken into fragments 0.5 to 2.0 cm. The treatments were control (no additive); corn, 8% of the natural material, sodium chloride, 8% of the natural material, urea, 8% of the natural material, sugar, 8% of the natural material and cornmeal more sugar, 4% of the natural material of corn meal and 4% sugar. Analyses were carried out in dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), lignin (LGN), ether extract (EE) and ash (MM). Treatment with salt (8%) had the highest rate bromatological, although the silage with the additive does not have appropriete protein levels. Urea at this dose (8%) prevents the silage by high-power alkaline. The high time to cut elephant grass (180 days) bromatological reduced the value of silage.

PENGARUH PENAMBAHAN DEDAK PADI DAN TEPUNG JAGUNG TERHADAP KUALITAS FISIK SILASE RUMPUT GAJAH (Pennisetum purpureumcv.Hawaii)

ABSTRACT EFFECT OF THE ADDITION OF RICE BRAN AND CORN FLOUR ON THE PHYSICAL QUALITY OF ENSILAGE ELEPHANT GRASS (Pennisetum purpureumcv.Hawaii). The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of the addition of rice bran and corn flour on the physical quality of elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum cv. Hawaii)silage.The present study used elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum cv. Hawaii)in the ensilage process. Rice bran and corn flour were then added to the elephant grass in the ensilage processing. The present study used Completely Randomized Design with 7 treatments and 5 replications. The treatments were formulated as follow: R0 = elephant grass 100%; R1 = elephant grass + 8% rice bran; R2 = elephant grass + 12% rice bran; R3 = elephant grass + 8% corn flour; R4 = elephant grass + 12% corn flour; R5 = elephant grass + 4% rice bran + 4% corn flour; R6 = elephantgrass + 6% rice bran + 6% corn flour. The variables measured were physical quality of elephant grass silage, including: texture, color, and aroma. The research results showed that the addition of rice bran and corn flour did not significantly affect (P&gt;0,01) ensilage color and aroma, but significantly affect (P&lt;0,01) the texture of the ensilage. It can be concluded that the addition of 8% rice bran gave the best result on theensilage textureof elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum cv. Hawaii). Keywords : Elephant Grass, Ensilage, Rice Bran, Corn Flour, Physical Quality

Elephant grass ensiled with wheat bran compared with corn silage in diets for lactating goats

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of wheat bran as an additive in elephant-grass silage on intake and digestibility of the nutrients, ingestive behavior, and yield and chemical composition of milk. Eight goats with 45 days of lactation were distributed in a (4 × 4) Latin square design.The treatments consisted of corn silage (CS), elephant-grass silage without wheat bran (EGS), elephant-grass silage with 10% wheat bran (EGS+10%WB), and elephant-grass silage with 20% wheat bran (EGS+20% WB). There was no difference in dry matter (DM) intake between diets EGS and CS in g d−1. However, the animals fed EGS+10%WB had lower DM and organic matter (OM) intakes than the animals fed CS in g kg−1 d−1 of body weight. There were lower non-fiber carbohydrate and metabolize energy intakes by animals fed diets based on elephant-grass silages than those fed CS. The EGS+20%WB diet provided lower digestibility coefficients of DM, OM, crude protein, ether extract, neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and digestible nutrients of the diet than the diet with CS. The NDF digestibility coefficient with diet EGS was greater than that obtained with diet CS. The diets with corn and elephant-grass silages provided similar milk yield levels. However, the animals fed diets based on EGS+20% WB produced less total-solids-corrected milk than the animals fed CS. No difference was found in the milk physicochemical properties and ingestive behavior of goats in this study. Corn silage can be replaced by elephant-grass silage harvested at 50 days of regrowth and elephant-grass silage with 10% wheat bran without influencing goat performance, behavioral variables, physiological variables, milk yield or the milk physicochemical properties.

Palm kernel meal as additive in the elephant-grass silage

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of adding palm kernel meal (BP) as an additive in elephant grass silage. The chemical qualitative and fermentation were analysed in a completely randomized design with six treatments, one with no BP (C) and six replications, where the averages of the results of days of closing and opening were analysed by regression analysis. We collected samples at the time of ensiling and after 190 days of storage for evaluation of dry matter, crude protein, carbohydrates (total, non-fibrous, water-soluble, cellulose and hemicellulose), ash, lignin and ether extract. In aerobic phase, we collected samples for pH, ammoniacal nitrogen, fungi and yeasts. The elephant grass of this experiment showed values of 13.9% DM and 8.25% CP while the BP has 77.2% DM and 16.9% CP. The inclusion of BP had inhibited the growth of fungi and yeasts. The increase in the content of BP decreased the concentration of NH3-N. Higher concentrations of BP in silage were more stable, and the stability breaks in 72 hours, while the stability of C was 19 hours. Concentrations above 15% BP had no significant variations in pH in the aerobic phase. The inclusion of palm kernel meal at concentrations 10% to 15% can be used in silage of elephant grass, inhibiting undesired fermentation and making them more stable. Concentrations above this value may affect the nutritive value of silage by high lignin content of the additive.

Características fermentativas, composição química e fracionamento de carboidratos e proteínas de silagem de capim-elefante emurchecido ou com adição de torta de mamona

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the concentrations of ammonia nitrogen, hydrogen potential, the losses of deriving the fermentative process, nutritional value, the fractioning of carbohydrates and protein the elephant grass silage wilted or not containing castor bean meal. The experimental design was completely randomized, with five treatments and with four replications: elephant grass wilted; elephant not wilted; elephant grass more castor bean meal (6%); elephant grass more castor bean meal (12%) and elephant grass more castor bean meal (18%), the coproduct was added with base on natural matter. We adopted a specific mass of 600 kg/m3. The silage containing 18% castor bean meal showed higher (P&lt;0.05) pH (4.8). High level of ammoniacal nitrogen was observed in the silage grass not wilted (12.8% N-total). The castor bean meal was effective in reducing (P&lt;0.05) losses to by effluent and total, providing a higher rate of recovery of dry matter. Also, was efficient in increasing (P&lt;0.05) the levels of DM, ash, crude protein e lignin. Already for organic matter, acid detergent insoluble nitrogen, total digestible nutrients, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, cellulose and total carbohydrate decreased (P&lt;0.05) with increasing doses of the castor bean meal. For the carbohydrate fractioning, there was no difference (P&gt;0.05) among the silages with additives for fractions A+B1, B2 and C. For the protein fractioning, the fractions A and C decreased (P&lt;0.05) with increase of the inclusion of castor bean meal, differently, of the fraction B1+B2 which increased. The castor bean stands out as a good additive in silage of elephant grass to reduce moisture and improve the fermentation characteristics of silages also was effective in increasing the protein value of silages, especially when using the dose 18%.

Original Research Article Milk Yield and Feed Conversion of Sokoto Gudali Cows Fed Elephant Grass Ensiled with Cassava Peel

Abstract Year-round availability of feed is a major concern for dairy farmers in many parts of the tropics. Silage making is a reliable means of providing feed for dairy cattle during periods of forage scarcity. In this study, Elephant grass (EG) (Pennisetum purpureum) was ensiled with cassava peel (CSP) at 0, 10, 30 and 50% levels of inclusion on a wet basis. At 21, 42 and 63 days of ensiling, silage samples were taken for chemical analysis and the remaining materials were fed to four lactating Sokoto Gudali cows for a period of 84 days using a Latin square design. Dry matter (DM) content of silage mixtures increased from 18.22 to 28.70% as level of CSP in the silage mixture increased while crude protein (7.33 to 6.08%) and crude fibre (32.80 to 23.95%) decreased. Dry matter intake of cows, milk yield and feed conversion ratio (FCR) varied (P &lt; 0.05) with inclusion of cassava peel in the silage mixtures. Dry matter intake of cows increased from 2.56 to 3.84% of body weight (BW) and milk yield from 2.90 to 6.70 kg/d as proportion of CSP in the grass silage increased. Feed conversion ratio of cows ranged from 2.08 to 3.23 and improved with inclusion of CSP in the silage. These results show that addition of cassava peel to Elephant grass silage improved intake and milk production in Sokoto Gudali cows fed Elephant grass silage.

Chemical composition and nutrient degradability in elephant grass silage inoculated with Streptococcus bovis isolated from the rumen

The objective of the present study was to assess the chemical and bromatological composition and in situ degradability of elephant grass silages inoculated with Streptococcus bovis isolated from cattle rumen. A complete randomized design was used with four treatments and six replications: elephant grass silage, elephant grass silage inoculated with 10(6) CFU/g Streptococcus bovis JB1 strains; elephant grass silage inoculated with 106 CFU/g Streptococcus bovis HC5 strains; elephant grass silage inoculated with 106 CFU/g Enterococcus faecium with six replications each. The pH and ammoniacal nitrogen values were lower (P<0.05) for the silages inoculated with Streptococcus bovis JB1 and HC5, respectively. The silage inoculated with Streptococcus bovis had a higher crude protein content (P<0.05) and there were no differences for the fiber contents in the silage. The (a)soluble fraction degradability, especially in the silages inoculated with Streptococcus bovis JB1 and HC5, had higher values, 30.77 and 29.97%, for dry matter and 31.01 and 36.66% for crude protein, respectively. Inoculation with Streptococcus bovis improved the fermentation profile, protein value and rumen degradability of the nutrients.