CUTTING HEIGHT AND ADDITION OF ENZYME-BACTERIAL INOCULANTS ON CORN SILAGE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND DIGESTIBILITY IN SHEEP

Abstract The objective of this experiment was to observe the influence of the height of corn plant cutting, associated or not with an enzyme-bacterial inoculant or not, on the chemical composition and digestibility of the silage in sheep. The cut heights were 20 and 40 centimeters above the soil. The additive inoculant was Maize-All®. We analyzed on silage: pH; dry matter; organic matter; crude protein; ether extract; neutral detergent fiber; acid detergent fiber; hemicellulose; cellulose; lignin; and non-fibrous carbohydrates. At the digestibility trial we evaluated apparent digestibility of DM, OM, CP, EE, NDF, ADF, Hem, Cel and NCF. We observed that a high cut reduced lignin value. The corn silage harvested at 20 cm had 84.0 g. kg-1 DM of lignin, higher value than the corn silage harvested at 40 cm (69.3 g. kg-1 MS), and there was no effect of inoculation. There were no differences among treatments at the digestibility trial. The cutting height reduced just lignin concentration. However, this lignin reduction did not affect digestibility and hence it did not affect the TDN concentration.