Quality of leucaena, gliricidia, and pornunça silages with different old man saltbush levels

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the quality of leucaena, gliricidia, and pornunça silages with different levels of old man saltbush inclusion in their composition. A completely randomized design was used with five levels of old man saltbush (Atriplex nummularia) inclusion (0, 25, 50, 75, and 100%) in leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala), gliricidia (Gliricidia sepium), and pornunça (Manihot sp.) silages, with 5 replications per treatment, totaling 75 experimental mini-silos maintained in a covered shed and free of opportunistic animals. Silos were opened after 100 days of ensilage, and the silage of the first 15 cm of their ends was discarded. The remaining material was homogenized and sampled for determining the bromatological composition, in vitro digestibility, and fermentation profile. Old man saltbush inclusion levels in leucaena silages promoted a negative linear effect for dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, ethereal extract, pH, and ammoniacal nitrogen, while a positive linear effect was found for mineral matter, in vitro dry matter digestibility, total carbohydrates, non-fibrous carbohydrates, and propionic acid (P < 0.05). This silage also had a quadratic effect for lactic acid. Gliricidia silages showed a positive linear behavior for dry matter, mineral matter, and total carbohydrates, whereas organic matter, crude protein, and ethereal extract presented a negative linear behavior (P < 0.05). The contents of organic lactic, acetic, and propionic acids showed a quadratic effect for gliricidia silage as old man saltbush levels increased (P < 0.05). Regarding pornunça silage, dry matter, mineral matter, total carbohydrates, propionic acid, and butyric acid presented a linear increasing behavior, while organic matter, crude protein, ethereal extract, and non-fibrous carbohydrates presented a linear decreasing behavior (P < 0.05). Lactic acid and acetic acid concentrations for pornunça silage showed a quadratic behavior according to the increasing old man saltbush inclusion levels (P < 0.05). The highest contribution of old man saltbush in the silages promoted changes in the profile of organic acids, allowing an improvement in silage quality, favoring lactic fermentation rather than acetic fermentation. Butyric acid contents were low for all treatments and indicated the control of undesirable fermentation processes. These results indicate that old man saltbush inclusion in silage composition may contribute to bromatological composition and fermentation process of the studied silages.

Condensed tannins extracted from Quebracho affect the fermentation profile, nutritional quality and in vitro gas production of pornunça (Manihot spp.) silages

“…Despite the dilution in protein levels, all silages showed CP levels above 70 g/kg DM, estimated by Van Soest (1994) so that there is a sufficient supply of nitrogen for the effective ruminal microbial fermentation. According to Voltolini et al (2019), the minimum protein level in the ruminant diet avoids limiting fibre degradation by ruminal microorganisms, thus meeting the minimum requirement for the proper functioning of the ruminal microbiota.…”

“…Efficient forage production is the biggest challenge for animal production in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. In the dry period, the limited water supply in these regions causes a decline in the production of plant biomass (Voltolini et al, 2019). Due to this seasonality, tropical forages do not provide the necessary nutritional input to maintain adequate levels of animal performance.…”

“…Pornunça is characterized by the high production of aerial phytomass (1.4-1.6 kg dry matter (DM)/ha; Nascimento et al, 2016) and by the high levels of crude protein (CP) in its aerial parts (14-28% DM; Nascimento et al, 2016) and neutral detergent fibre (NDF; 552 g/kg DM; Silva et al, 2021), with high drought tolerance. The DM content (239.4 g/kg natural matter; Voltolini et al, 2019) below the recommended limit for the preparation of good quality silages (between 300 and 350 g/kg natural matter; McDonald et al, 1991) may favour secondary fermentation during ensiling by reducing the nutritional value of silage. Proteolysis can directly affect the animals' intake due to the presence of unpleasant odours or causing pathologies in the presence of pathogenic bacteria, such as Clostridium and enteric bacteria (Nascimento et al, 2017).…”

Intake, digestibility, milk production, ingestive behavior and gas emissions of Saanen goats fed pornunça silage with levels of condensed tannin extracted from Schinopsis brasiliensis

“…is a forage plant adapted to the Brazilian semiarid characterized by the high content of soluble carbohydrates in the leaves and thin stems, which is important to produce good quality silage. However, the crude protein content (167 g/kg − 275.8 g/kg in dry matter -DM; Nascimento et al, 2016;Carvalho et al, 2017) in its shoot can lead to a buffering effect and hinder the reduction of pH to optimal levels for silage fermentation (Voltolini et al, 2019). Thus, adding additives aims to improve fermentation patterns, the ensiled mass's nutritional value, and reduce fermentation losses (Restelatto et al, 2019).…”

Inclusão de Moringa oleifera e Tithonia diversifolia na silagem de cana-de-açúcar como fonte alimentar alternativa para ovinos

“…Neste contexto, a utilização de plantas com boa produtividade e características nutricionais desejáveis é importante para alimentação animal (MEDEIROS et al, 2015). Além disso, como alternativa para reduzir a deficiência alimentar na seca, a utilização de forragens conservadas, como a silagem, possibilita a manutenção da regularidade dos sistemas de produção (VOLTOLINI et al, 2019).…”