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Feeding Systems with Legumes to Intensify Dairy Farms - cgiar

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Table 3. Dry matter and crude protein contents of maize:soybean silages in<br />

different proportions (Pacific Region, Costa Rica).<br />

Treatmenta Maize:soybean ratio DM<br />

CP<br />

(%)<br />

(%)<br />

T1 1:1 29.3 12.0<br />

T2 1:1 26.5 11.6<br />

T3 1:1 27.4 11.9<br />

Average*<br />

27.7 11.8 a<br />

T4 2:1 — —<br />

T5 2:1 26.9 9.8<br />

T6 2:1 26.1 9.2<br />

Average<br />

26.5 9.5 b<br />

T7 3:1 26.9 8.1<br />

T8 3:1 27.7 8.8<br />

T9 3:1 30.2 8.7<br />

Average 28.3 8.5 c<br />

a. Treatments are described in Table 1.<br />

* Averages followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (P ≤ 0.05%), according <strong>to</strong> Duncan’s<br />

test.<br />

Titter<strong>to</strong>n and Maasdorp (1997) worked <strong>with</strong> silage (1:1) of maize and 15<br />

legumes in monoculture. They found that all legumes presented acceptable<br />

levels of fermentation (pH ranging between 3.7 and 4.5; NH3:N > 12%). They<br />

also found that protein content (dry basis) increased from 77 g/kg in pure<br />

maize silage <strong>to</strong> 93 g/kg in yellow lupine and 153 g/kg in soybean forage.<br />

Conclusions<br />

• Based on the organoleptic evaluation and pH values obtained, the<br />

silages obtained in this study can be considered as of very good quality.<br />

DM contents, which ranged between 26.5% and 28.3%, are acceptable<br />

and associated <strong>with</strong> a low loss of effluents.<br />

• Silage quality values are <strong>with</strong>in the normal ranges cited in literature<br />

and clearly evidence the advantage of using soybean forage in mixtures<br />

<strong>with</strong> maize for silaging.<br />

43

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