Qual a melhor forma de ensilar o milho? Silo bolsa ou silo superfície?

Abstract

In Beef Cattle, the corn silage diet is widely used, mainly in confinement finishing, but a more detailed evaluation of this product is needed in terms of conservation methods. It is considered that the quality of this product is totally dependent on the process of making, conserving and using the silage. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of corn silage in two different conservation methods and its applicability in finishing cows. The experiment was carried out at the Beef Cattle Laboratory (LBC) belonging to the Animal Science Department of the Federal University of Santa Maria. The experimental units were 40 Nellore cows and Charolais x Nellore crosses, with an average age of 5 years and initial body weight of 380 kg. In this study, two different corn silage conservation methods were evaluated, namely; Corn silage preserved in bag silos and corn silage preserved in surface silos. The cattle's diet consisted of corn silage and concentrate, in a silage: concentrate ratio of 60:40 and 40:60. The experimental design used will be a completely randomized design, with four treatments; corn silage in different conservation methods (surface silo and bag silo) and two roughage:concentrate ratios (60:40 and 40:60), with ten replications. The treatments were; Treatment 1 (T1) - corn silage conserved in a surface silo volumetric:concentrate ratio 60:40; Treatment 2 (T2) - corn silage conserved in bag silo volumetric:concentrate ratio 60:40; Treatment 3 (T3) - corn silage preserved in a silo surface volume ratio:concentrate 40:60 and Treatment 4 (T4) - corn silage preserved in a bag silo volume ratio:concentrate 40:60. The concentrate was composed of white oat grain, broken corn grain, soybean meal, common salt and calcitic limestone. The different corn silage storage methods showed significant differences (p<0.05) for the evaluation of temperature, pH and silage losses in corn silage stored in surface silos. There was also a significant difference (p<0.05) for consumption of neutral detergent fiber (CFDN), consumption of acid detergent fiber (CFDA), for silage from surface silos, being lower than the silage from the bag silo, but it did not affect the performance of confined cows. It is concluded from the results presented in this study that cows fed with a higher roughage ratio had a larger rumen size, but it is not influenced by the type of corn silage storage. And that the corn silage conservation method associated with the roughage:concentrate ratio in the diet of cull cows does not promote an increase in performance and carcass and meat characteristics.