EFECTO DE LA EDAD Y LA FE RTILIZACIÓN SOBRE LA CALIDAD FERMENTATIVA DE LOS ENSILAJES TROPICALES. I. HIERBA DE GUINEA CV. LIKONI

Abstract

Influence of age and fertilization upon fermentative quality was studied on guineagrass cv. Likoni after 8 weeks using 50, 60, 70 and 80 kg N/ha/cut and after 10 weeks using 60, 70, 80 and 90 kg N/ha/ cut. Microsilos of 400 g capacity with three replications per treatment and 60 days for opening time were the experimental units. Mathematical polynomial models were used to analyze the results. Increasing N levels induced higher CP per cent independently of the age. On the contrary, fermentative indicators in those treatments of 8 weeks were found to have the lower pH, VFA concentrations and per cent of N-NH₃/N_t. with the optimum averages among 60 and 70 kg M/ha/cut. Similar studies are suggested on other tropical forages in order to confirm if the behaviours of this experiment are maintained.