QUALIDADE DA SILAGEM DE MILHO ACRESCIDA DE DIFERENTES NÍVEIS DE MANDIOCA IN NATURA TRITURADA E AVALIADA EM DOIS TEMPOS DE ARMAZENAMENTO

Abstract

The chemical composition of foods, especially alternatives, must be well known to meet the nutritional requirements of the animal. In addition to corn, cassava is a product that has excellent chemical characteristics, is palatable and has good acceptance by animals, so it can be a good alternative to increase the quality of corn silage. The objective of this work was to evaluate, through chemical analysis, the quality of corn silage added with different levels of fresh crushed cassava, in two storage times, at 30 and 60 days. The experiments were carried out at Sítio Ponte do Açude, located in the district of Córrego do Ouro, municipality of Campos Gerais, MG, from February to May 2021. To carry out the experiments, experimental silos were built using PVC tubes and one mixture was made in different proportions of silage and crushed cassava roots, in duplicate, according to the treatments: treatment 1 – corn silage without addition of cassava (control); treatment 2 - corn silage (85%) with addition of cassava (15%); treatment 3 - corn silage (70%) with addition of cassava (30%). The samples were sent to the Laboratory 3rlab®, Lavras, MG and the results of the chemical parameters were submitted to analysis of variance and Tukey's test at a 5% significance level. Among the evaluated parameters, the dry matter (DM) has great nutritional importance, thus, the mixture in which cassava was included in greater proportion in the corn silage had a higher percentage of DM (47.9%) at 30 days, when compared with the other treatments, however, no significant differences were observed (p>0.05) for DM in the mixtures of corn silage and cassava when comparing the times of 30 and 60 days. It is concluded that the opening of the silo after 30 days and the inclusion of in natura crushed cassava root in up to 30% in the corn silage can be viable in properties that are able to cultivate this tuberous root and that carry out corn silage to, thus, increasing the quality of the final product.