Aerobic stability of Pioneiro grass silages with addition of maize grain or whole maize plant

Introduction Silages have been an important alternative to ruminant nutrition due to the seasonality of pasture growth in different regions. Maize, although regarded as an ideal crop for conservation due to its high quality in silage production (McDonald et al., 1991), is a plant known by its low tolerance to climate changes. To minimize the effects of seasonal climatic variations on forage allowance, some cultivars of Pennisetum purpureum have been used due to their perennity, drought tolerance and increased forage yield, sometimes yielding up to three times more dry matter than the maize plant. One of the challenges found in the silage use is the process of aerobic degradation where the presence of oxygen into the silage mass triggers the growth of undesirable microorganisms causing increased temperature and nutritional losses (Bernardes et al., 2007). To track the changes on silage quality during feed out phase, the temperature variation has been a useful measurement to show the start of silage spoilage. Thus, a trial was carried out with the aim to study the correlation between thermal changes and aerobic stability on pure and mixed silages of Pioneiro grass and maize.