AGRONOMIC AND NUTRITIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CORN HYBRIDS AND THEIR SILAGES (Zea mays L.).

Abstract

This study evaluated corn hybrids through agronomic characteristics and the qualitative values of silages produced with the whole plants and without the cobs. Agronomic evaluations showed lowest values of green and dry mass productions, height of plants and of cobs for WFISILO (8.4 and 2.0 t/ha, 163.3 and 65.0 cm, respectively) and the highest values for F001, CO9621, AG1051 AND AG5011, with average values of 50.2 and 14.8 t/ha, 241.0 and 140.4 cm. The cobs represented 30% of the dry matter productions. The silages produced with the whole plants showed crude protein content between 7.8 and 9.1%, and 7.1 to 8.8% when produced with the cobless plants. The levels of ADF and lignin presented no differences (P>0.05) between hybrids, with average values of 62.5% and 5.9%, respectively, when the whole plants were used and 29.8% and 4.3% with cobless plants. The average values of in vitro dry matter digestibility were 65.6% for silages with the whole plants and 73.8% for silages without cobs, without the value for WFISILO that presented the lowest value, 66.7%. The hybrids that demonstrated good results for green mass production and good quality of silages with whole or cobless plants were the AG1051, AG5011, CO9621 and F001. KEY-WORDS: Cobs. Crude protein. Digestibility. Dry matter. Fiber. Height of plants.