Nutritional additives in high moisture corn silage

Abstract

Because of the high total digestible nutrient and dry matter (DM) digestibility contents , high moisture silage may be an alternative to maximize animal performance. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the chemical composition, ruminal degradability and aerobic stability of high moisture corn silage (pure corn grain silage and soybean-, sunflower- or urea-enriched silages). Plastic barrels with capacity of 200 kg were used as experimental silos, which remained closed for nine months. The experimental design was completely randomized with four replications. After opening the silos, the chemical-bromatological composition and the quality of silages were determined. The addition of soybean or sunflower increased the crude protein content (CP) in 48.2% on average, and the neutral detergent fiber content in 60%, but decreased the starch content when compared to pure high moisture corn silage. Moreover, additions decreased the effective DM and CP degradability. Addition of urea decreased by 30% DM losses and improved the chemical composition and aerobic stability of the silage. In general, additives improved the chemical composition without affecting the silage conservation quality.