Evaluation of Sunflower-Maize Silage for Yield and Quality Traits
Evaluation of Sunflower-Maize Silage for Yield and Quality Traits
Zain Ali1, Amjed Ali1, Bilal Ahmad Khan1*, Muhammad Ather Nadeem1, Muhammad Asif1, Adnan Ashraf1, Muhammad Ehsan Safdar1, Iram Inayat2, Aneela Nijabat3 and Rameez Hussain3,4
ABSTRACT
Silage is the term used for forage with a high moisture content preserved by fermentation. The main objectives of making silage are to preserve forage for use in those seasons when fresh forage is not available, to preserve forage when there is a surplus of it during the growing season, and to preserve forage that cannot be grazed. The experiment was carried out at research area, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha to evaluate the combined effect of sunflower and maize crop for the quality production of silage for enhancing the growth and production in the animals. Six maize hybrids were used along with the sunflower, tree were twelve treatments, each maize with sunflower as intercrop and only maize hybrids as solo crop. Outcome of research revealed that both of sunflower heads and maize plants have better combination for the silage production and the quality parameters like pH, moisture content, protein content, fat content and ash contents. The moisture contents of both the samples and combined silage had not much difference among them, but the protein content, fat content and the pH of the combined silage had remarkable difference among them. The Syngenta-8711 + sunflower and Monsanto-6142 + sunflower varieties were best and had maximum mean values for most of quality parameters, (Fat contents: 14.99%, moisture contents: 38.66%, protein contents: 17.41% and pH: 4.10). These varieties can be grown as intercrop with sunflower to get higher yield and quality of silage.
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