Effects of different silage preservatives on silage quality of pennesitum purpureum harvested at different harvesting periods.

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the effects of preservatives on the chemical composition of elephant grass (P. purpureum Bana cv.) harvested from N-fertilized and unfertilized treatments at different periods (3, 6 and 9 months). The plants were grown on 1st November 2008 and harvested every 3 months until July 2009. The grass was chopped and a 500 g sample obtained and was mixed with 4% molasses, 4% molasses+0.25% urea and 2.5% dicalcium phosphate, respectively with plain silage as a control. The samples were ensiled with respective preservative in duplicates and were analysed for pH and proximate after 30 days of ensiling. Molasses added silage had a higher (P<0.05) DM at 3 months on both N-fertilized and unfertilized treatments, whereas molasses added silage prepared from unfertilized treatment harvested at 3 months of growth, had lowest (P<0.05) pH and was highly (P<0.05) digestible but digestibility declined as the plant matured.