Determination of Silage Quality of Alfalfa and Annual Ryegrass Mixture

Abstract

Feed costs are an important factor determining profitability in livestock enterprises. For this reason, it is necessary to harmonize plant and animal production within the same enterprise. The roughage requirement for animal husbandry is provided from meadows and pastures and sources such as green grass, hay, silage and hay obtained from field agriculture. Especially recently, the increase in silage production in Türkiye is an indication of the increasing importance given to silage. In this study, it was aimed to determine the silage quality of mixtures of alfalfa and ryegrass at different rates. This study was carried out to determine the silage quality of alfalfa and Italian grass mixtures (100:0, 80:20, 60:40, 40:60, 20:80 and 0:100). The harvested plants were cut into 2 cm size after wilting a little and filled into 2 kg vacuum silage packages considering the mixing ratios. The silage samples, whose air was removed by vacuum packaging machine and their mouths were closed, were stored at 25±2 oC for 45 days. In treatments were determined physical observations, dry matter, pH, crude protein, acid detergent fiber, neutral detergent fiber, relative feed value, acetic acid, lactic acid and some mineral contents. In this study, which was carried out to determine the quality of silages made of alfalfa and annual grass in plain and different mixture ratios in Bilecik conditions. As a result, it was determined that annual ryegrass added to alfalfa at different rates positively affected silage quality. Considering all the examined characters, it was found that adding 40 % annual ryegrass to the alfalfa silage as better results in terms of silage quality.