Fermentation quality and nutritive value of purple guineagrass and legumes silages

Abstract

The experiments was conducted to evaluate the fermentative quality, nutritive value and dry matter digestibility by in vitro gas production technique of Purple guineagrass (Panicum maximum cv. TD. 58, Pa) combined with 3 legumes; Thaphra stylo (Stylosanthes guianensis cv.Thaphra stylo, Sty), Hamata (Stylosanthes hamata cv. Verano, Ha) or Cavalcade (Centrosema pascuorum cv. Cavalcade, Ca) silages at ratio 50:50 as fresh weight. The result showed that the pH value of the silages was 4.33-4.56 and lactic acid content was 4.16-7.73 % of dry matter. The butyric acid content was low in every treatment; the ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) content was 6.91-8.37 % of total nitrogen. Therefore, these result revealed that the fermentative quality of all silages were acceptable. The combination between grass and legume silages was higher in CP and lower NDF than solely grass silage. In addition, the dry matter digestibility and metabolizable energy of guineagrass-thaphra stylo silages were higher than the other silages (P<0.05).