Ruminal degradability of dry matter, crud protein, and fiber fraction of silages of corn, sorghum, and Brachiaria brizantha

The experiment evaluated the degradation of the dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), and hemicellulose of silages of corn, sorghum and Brachiaria brizantha. Three steers averaging 200kg bw were rumen fistulated. In each animal, the three silages were incubated for 0, 6, 12, 24, 36, 48, 72, and 96 hours. For the potential degradability and the effective degradability (passage rate 5%/h) the corn silage presented the highest values, 80.1 and 56.7%, respectively, followed by the sorghum silage (73.0 and 45.3%), and the Brachiaria silage (60.8 and 33.7%). For CP, the highest degradability value was also verified for the corn silage (87.0%), followed by the sorghum silage (81.8%), and Brachiaria silage (75.2%). For NDF, the highest degradability values were also verified for the corn and sorghum silages. However, for ADF, the sorghum silage presented degradation profile lower than the corn silage. The results suggest a better quality of the corn silage, followed by sorghum and Brachiaria silages.