Influence of storage on nutritive value and composition of rhodesgrass hay

Abstract

This work was conducted at the Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias de Jaboticabal (UNESP), SP, Brazil, to study the changes in nutritive value of rhodesgrass (Chloris gayana) hay under three storage methods: in barn, in the field with plastic cover, and in the field with grass cover, in three periods of storage (60. 120 and 180 days) using in vivo digestibility techniques. The experimental design was 3 x 3 factorial, with three replications, in randomized blocks. The analysis of variance showed no significant differences for digestibility coefficients of dry-matter but showed a significant difference for the ether extract and digestible nitrogen free extracts, whose means were 54%, 39.86% and 59.02% at 60, 120 and 180 days of storage, and 51.85%, 59.10% and 58.25% for digestible nitrogen free extract, respectively. In relation to storage methods, the digestibility coefficients were 52.10%, 51.87% and 54.94% for the ether extracts, and 58.18%, 57.16%, 53.88% for nitrogen free extract. The dry matter intake of the animals was 72 g/kg W^0.75.