High moisture corn silage with added soybeans grains: aerobic stability, ruminal disappearance and performance of dairy cows

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of using microbial additive and urea on in vitro digestibility, in ruminal disappearance, and aerobic stability of moisture corn silage with the addition of raw soybeans. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three treatments (moisture corn grain silage + 20% of raw soybeans, moisture corn silage + 20% of raw soybean + microbial inoculant and moisture corn silage + 20% of raw soybean + 1.4% of urea) and four replications. Silages showed good aerobic stability, within the period of 96 hours, with few losses of dry matter and no consistent variations in the chemical composition. The Urea addition decreased the rate of ruminal degradation of the moisture corn silage with the addition of soybean. A second trial was conducted to evaluate the replacement of commercial concentrate by moisture corn silage with the addition of 20% of crude soybean, 20 dairy cows were used and arranged in a completely randomized design with two treatments and ten replicates. It was found that the moisture corn silage with added soybeans can be used in diets for lactating cows, in replacement of the commercial concentrate, with no impact on the production and chemical composition of the milk, maintaining production levels.