Silage quality of pearl millet cultivars produced in different cutting ages

Abstract

The millet has being prominent in recent years, especially with the arrival of early genotypes with high nutritional value and productive potential, coming from breeding. As these genotypes are new, little information exists about them. Thus, it is important to obtain technical information, supported by scientific studies about the behavior of these materials considering the nutritional value and harvest for silage production. The objective of this research was to evaluate the silage quality of pearl millet genotypes grown in different cuts age. The experiment was carried out on the campus of the Agronomy, of the Rio Verde University. The experimental design was randomized blocks with four replications in a 5 x 3 factorial, with five genotypes of millet: ARD 500, ADR 7010, LAB 0730, LAB 0731 and LAB 0732 and three cuts ages: 57, 65 and 73 days after sowing (DAS). The results showed that silages produced by millet, regardless of genotype, could be considered of nutritional value. Since this is a precocious material the best age that provided the best quality of these silages was when the materials were harvested at 57 DAS.