Composição químico-bromatológica da silagem do capim elefante cv. brs kurumi aditivada com farelo de trigo ou pré-emurchecimento

Abstract

In Brazil, the elephant grass group (Pennisetum purpureum Schumach) is among the most used grasses for animal feed, for example the cultivar BRS Kurumi, which despite being widely advertised for use under pasture, can also be used to produce silage as long as some factors are observed, including the high moisture content, in which case it is recommended the use of techniques and additives that increase the dry matter content in silage. In this context, the objective of this work was to characterize nutritionally, through chemical and bromatological analysis, the silage of forage Pennisetum purpureum Schumach cv. BRS Kurumi considering the pre-wilting technique and the use of wheat bran as a moisture absorbing additive. An entirely randomized design was used, with five treatments and five repetitions: Control (grass only), Pre-wilting (grass with 24h of partial dehydration) and Wheat bran in the proportions 10, 20 and 30% based on the natural matter ensiled. The results obtained were submitted to analysis of variance and to evaluate the effect of wheat bran on BRS Kurumi silage, polynomial contrasts were used to determine the linear and quadratic effect of the treatments. The inclusion of up to 20% of wheat bran showed significant nutritional, fermentative and economic benefits to the silage. The pre-wilting technique provided superior quality silage to the control in terms of dry matter and mineral matter, requiring further studies on the use of PE combined with the use of moisture absorbing actives in the cultivar BRS Kurumi. Therefore, it becomes unfeasible to produce silage of the BRS Kurumi cultivar under the conditions studied, without the use of additives and techniques for reducing moisture.