MSc

The investigation entitled “Cutting intervals and additives for quality silage production” was conducted at Kerala Livestock Development Board farm, Dhoni, Palakkad during May 2015 to April 2016. The main objectives were to assess the effect of cutting intervals on quality fodder production for ensiling and to study the effect of additives and cutting intervals for quality silage production using hybrid napier variety Suguna.
The investigation comprised of two experiments. The first experiment was conducted in field and was laid out in RBD with three treatments and seven replications. The treatments comprised of three cutting intervals - 45 days, 60 days and 75 days. The results showed that, the highest fodder yield of 57.85 t ha-1 cut-1 was obtained in T3 (75 days), but the fodder quality was better in T1 (45 days) which registered high crude protein content (10.56 %) and low crude fibre content (26.81 %).
The second experiment on silage production was laid out as factorial experiment in CRD with two factors i.e. ensiling material and additives with three replications. Three types of ensiling materials tested were - E1 (fodder harvested at 45 days interval), E2 (fodder harvested at 60 days interval) and E3 (fodder harvested at 75 days interval) and additives tested were - A1 (Urea 2 %), A2 (Jaggery 2 %), A3 (Urea 1 % + Jaggery 1 %), A4 (Molasses 2 %) and a no additive (A5) treatment was also included.
The results indicated that among the different ensiling materials, fodder harvested at 45 days produced good quality silage. The silage was characterized by high crude protein content (11.59 %), low crude fibre content (29.01 %), ideal pH and other quality parameters like ash, ether extract fat (EEF) and nitrogen free extract (NFE) in safe limit.
Ensiling with urea 2 % or urea 1 % + jaggery 1 % produced good quality silage characterised by a crude protein content of 10.55 % and 10.52 % respectively and a crude fibre content of 37.27 % and 36.87 % respectively.
Crude protein, crude fibre, ash, EEF and NFE contents were significantly influenced by ensiling material. Additives significantly influenced the crude protein, EEF and NFE contents in silage and did not influence ash and crude fibre contents significantly. Interaction effect was found significant in ash, EEF and NFE contents of silage. Both ensiling materials and additives did not show any significant effect on pH of silage as well as recovery percentage.
Based on the study, it can be concluded that quality silage from hybrid napier can be prepared by ensiling the fodder harvested at 45 days interval and by adding urea 2 % or urea 1 % + jaggery 1 % as additives.
For the preparation of organic silage, molasses 2 % or jaggery 2 % can be recommended as additive depending upon availability.