2022, 87 (3)  p. 253-258

Marina Vranić, Krešimir Bošnjak, Goran Kiš, Tomislav Mašek, Diana Brozić, Anja Novak, Krešimir Krapinec

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the nutritive value of fermented forage from semi-natural grassland harvested at 3 cutting heights: (i) cutting height 2 cm, (ii) cutting height 6 cm and (iii) cutting height 13 cm. Fresh forage was wilted separately according to investigated treatments for 24 hours before ensiling into experimental silos. After 35-day fermentation, the ensiled forage dry matter (DM) was determined while the chemical composition, fermentation quality and biological quality parameters were predicted by NIR spectroscopy. The following parameters were predicted: corrected DM (CDM), crude protein (CP), organic matter (OM), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acidic detergent fiber (ADF), metabolic energy (ME), fermentable ME in ME (FME/ME), NH3-N, sugar residues, the digestibility of the OM in the DM (D-value) and CP degradability. Ensiled forage cut at 13 cm above the ground level had significantly lower OM content (P < 0.05) but higher ME, and D-value (P < 0.05) in comparison with forage cut at 2 or 6 cm above the ground level. The CP content was significantly affected by the cutting height (P < 0.001). The CP content was the highest at forage cut at the highest residual stubble height and was getting lower as the cutting height decreased (P < 0.001). Cutting at 2 cm above the ground level resulted in forage lower in sugar residues (P < 0.05) in comparison with cutting at higher residual stubble height (6 cm and 13 cm). It was concluded that the higher cutting height promotes higher nutritive value of fermented forage from semi-natural grassland compared to the quality of fermented forage defoliated at the lower cutting height.

Keywords

cutting height, semi-natural grassland, fermented forage, nutritive value

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