Fermentative profile and nutritional value of elephant grass silage with different levels of crude glycerin

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the best level of inclusion of crude glycerin in elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schum.) silage on fermentative profile, chemical composition and ruminal degradation of dry matter and fiber fraction in elephant grass silages. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design being used elephant grass cv. Napier with four levels of inclusion of glycerin (1, 5, 10, 15% in natural matter) with six repetitions and the control treatment (exclusive silage elephant grass). Increasing linear effect was observed for each unit added glycerin percentage in natural matter (MN) an increase of 0.36% in the DM content of silages and increase of 0.32% in the ether extract. The fermentative quality of silage there was no difference in pH between the control silage and added with glycerine, with an average of 3.91. The degradability of the fiber, the addition of crude glycerin up to 15% increased by 7.2%; 53.8% and 36.5%, respectively, the insoluble fraction, but potentially degradable standardized "bp", degradation rate of the fraction "bp", "c" and effective degradability, respectively. Inclusion of 15% glycerin in natural matter improves the composition bromatological fermentative profile and ruminal degradation of dry matter and fiber fraction.