RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: Apart from various climatic differences, corn harvest stage and varieties are two major factors that can influence the yield and quality of corn silage in the tropics. A study was conducted to determine the optimum harvest stage of four corn varieties for silage production in Malaysia. METHODS: Corn was harvested at four growth stages; silking, milk, dough, and dent stages from four varieties; Sweet Corn hybrid 926, Suwan, breeding test line (BTL) 1 and BTL 2. Using a split plot design, the treatments were then analysed based on the plant growth performance, yield, nutritive and feeding values followed by a financial feasibility study for potential commercialization. RESULTS: Significant differences and interactions were detected across the parameters suggesting varying responses among the varieties towards the harvest stages. Sweet Corn was best harvested early in the dough stage due to high dry matter (DM) yield, digestible nutrient, and energy content with low fibre portion. Suwan was recommended to be harvested at the dent stage when it gave the highest DM yield with optimum digestible nutrient and energy content with low acid detergent fibre. BTL 1 and BTL 2 varieties can either be harvested at dough or dent stages as the crude protein, crude fibre, DM yield, DM content, digestible nutrient and energy were not significantly different at either stage. Further financial analysis showed that only Sweet Corn production was not financially feasible while Suwan had the best financial appraisal values among the grain varieties. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, only the grain varieties tested had the potential for silage making according to their optimum harvest stage but Suwan is highly recommended for commercialization as it was the most profitable.
RESUMO
The potential of using whole corn crop silage and rice straw as an alternative feed for the beef cattle based on the intake and growth performance were evaluated. Using randomised completely block design, nine adult Mafriwal cattle were blocked intro three groups and treated with three different forage diets supplemented with 20% pelleted palm kernel cake on dry matter basis. The treatments were 100% rice straw (RS), 100% corn silage (CS) and an equal mixture of rice straw and corn silage (MIX) fed ad libitum. The animals were housed in individual pens, and the feeding trial was conducted for 12 weeks with 2 weeks of adaptation period. The results showed that CS had the best feed nutritive composition with the lowest concentration of highly indigestible fibre and the highest concentration of organic matter and energy. The CS also had the highest intake, and the corn silage inclusion in MIX managed to improve the intake on par with CS in terms of the dry matter intake of body weight (DMI of BW), voluntary intake (VI) and crude protein (CP) intake. Cattle fed with CS gave the highest and most stable BW gain with an average daily gain (ADG) of 808 g/day rivalling cross-bred cattle fed with high amount of concentrates. The all straw diet (RS) supplemented with PKC recorded a positive ADG of 133 g/day while the MIX gave 383 g/day matching total Napier grass diet.