Production and quality of the silage of sorghum intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass in different forage systems and at different maturity stages

Abstract

As part of the search for sustainability in production systems, systems of annual crops intercropped with tropical forage plants have recently been used for silage production. Therefore, in the present study we aimed to evaluate the dry matter yield, fermentative parameters and nutritional value of the silage of sorghum intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass in different forage systems and maturity stages in a crop-livestock integration system. The experiment was conducted at the Goiano Federal Institute (Instituto Federal Goiano), Rio Verde Campus, Goiás, Brazil, in a completely randomised design with four replications in a 5 × 3 factorial arrangement with five forage systems (monocropped sorghum, monocropped Paiaguas palisadegrass, sorghum row intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass, sorghum inter-row intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass and sorghum oversown and intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass) and three maturity stages of the sorghum (milky, soft dough and hard dough). The results show that for all sowing methods, the silages of the intercropping systems harvested in the hard-dough stage provide a higher yield per area than did the monocropped sorghum and Paiaguas palisadegrass. The intercropping of sorghum with Paiaguas palisadegrass in crop-livestock integration systems could become an important option for the production of silage because intercropping minimises the inconveniences resulting from the fermentation process of the silage of monocropped grasses and improves the quality of the silage. These findings show this intercropping method to be advantageous strategy for the production of supplemental roughage in addition to contributing to the formation of pasture after the crops have been harvested for ensiling.

Agro-economic efficiency dynamics in vegetable cowpea and radish cultivar combinations in strip-intercropping systems

“…This can be explained by the higher crude protein content and lower fibre fractions of the forages, which contributed to the better digestibility of the silage. The IVDMD values obtained here are consistent with the values found in other studies (Skonieski et al, 2010;Cruvinel et al, 2017;S. S. Oliveira et al, 2020;Taveira et al, 2020).…”

“…The TDN content of the silages was not influenced by the addition level, forage type or their interaction, and its average value was 600.18 g kg -1 DM. These values were above those found by S. S. Oliveira et al (2020) for Paiaguas palisadegrass silage (531.5 g kg -1 DM) and below those found for grain sorghum silage (663.5 g kg -1 DM). The difference in the contents above is due to the sorghum hybrid; sweet sorghum has a lower number of grains in the panicle than grain sorghum and provides less energy as a result (Taveira et al, 2020).…”

“…This occurred because tropical forages have a higher buffering capacity than annual crops (Souza et al, 2019). According to S. S. Oliveira et al (2020), forage grasses have a high buffering capacity and a low content of soluble carbohydrates; this can influence pH values, as observed in this study.…”

Production and quality of sunflower and Paiaguas palisadegrass silage in monocropped and intercropping in different forage systems

“…However, the lowest production of DM was obtained by Paiaguas palisadegrass monocropped forage system, demonstrating that the intercropping has contributed for the rise of DM production in 110.6; 127.9 and 48.9%, in the rows, inter-rows and oversown intercropped, respectively. Several studies have evidenced the benefits of producing silages from intercropping systems (Ribeiro et al, 2017;Cruvinel et al, 2017;Souza et al, 2019;Oliveira et al, 2020).…”

“…BRS Paiaguas is a great option, the plant attends all the requirements needed in different systems of production, encompassing different technological levels (Costa et al, 2016). Besides that, the forage has been used for the production of silage in integrated systems, allowing great results (Santos et al, 2016;Costa et al, 2018;Souza et al, 2019;Oliveira et al, 2020). Cruvinel et al (2017) reported that the silage of additive sunflowers with tropical forages are able to bring great benefits to the quality of the silage, for example, decrease in the content of ethereal extract, in the fibers of acid detergents, lignin, in addition to the production of silage in the off season, with good quality and with sufficient amount for nutritional maintenance of ruminants.…”