Nutritive value of oat and maize mix silage at different ensiling period

The study was undertaken to know the nutritional qualities of Oat and Maize silage with different treatment composition by adding oat in maize for preparation of silage. In this experiment, 5 treatments and 3 replications were laid out in a completely randomized design. The treatments consisted of silages: (T0) Control 100% Maize, (T1) 20% Oat and 80% Maize, (T2) 30% Oat and 70% Maize, (T3) 40% Oat and 60% Maize, (T4) 50% Oat and 50% Maize. The chemical composition of silage prepared from Maize and Oat fodder as affected by ensiling duration was assessed through determination of their proximate composition and fibre fractions. Results show that the ensiling duration had significant effect on the parameters determined with crude protein content ranging between (7.87% - 7.19%), Crude fibre (26.46% - 20.39%), NDF (69.47% - 58.34%), Ether extract (2.54% - 1.21%) and pH (4.92 – 3.80) at 45, 60 and 90 days of ensiling period. Among the different treatment composition, treatment T3 - 40% Oat + 60% Maize recorded highest nutritive value than the other treatment composition in respect to Crude protein, Crude fibre, Neutral detergent fibre, and Acid detergent fibre. Nutritive value of all treatment composition were seen highest at 45 days of ensiling.