Nutritional value of forage peanut (Arachis pintoi cv. BRS Mandobi) and elephant grass silages

• DOI: 10.22533/at.ed.6091915044

• Palavras-chave: Atena

• Keywords: Dry matter recovery; ensilage; legume; nutritive value; roughage.

• Abstract:

  Arachis pintoi, commonly known

  as forage peanut, is a leguminous plant with

  good forage yield and nutritional quality adapted

  to the Brazilian environmental conditions and

  used in grass/legume pastures or preserved

  as silage or hay. In this study, we evaluated the

  nutritional value and dry matter losses of silages

  produced with different proportions of forage

  peanut cv. BRS Mandobi and elephant grass.

  Five levels of substitution of elephant grass

  (0, 25, 50, 75, and 100%, fresh matter basis)

  for the legume were tested in a completely

  randomized design with four replicates. The

  fiber components of the silages, except lignin,

  decreased with higher levels of forage peanut.

  Crude protein content and in vitro dry matter

  digestibility presented maximum values of

  16.9% and 62.5%, increasing by 0.07 and 0.15

  units with every 1% of the legume added to the

  silage, respectively. Silage pH rose from 3.8

  to 5.4, although gas and effluent losses had

  estimated reductions of 0.01 and 0.66 units

  for each additional unit of the legume. Silages

  composed of elephant grass and more than

  50% forage peanut improve the nutritional value

  of the feed and increase dry matter recovery

  of the ensiled forage mass. Silages with these

  proportions of forage peanut have high protein

  and low fiber contents.

• Número de páginas: 15