Study of the properties and nutritional value of silage produced by agricultural forage crops and common vegetable waste

Abstract The paper compared the nutritional content and some physicochemical parameters of silages obtained with three forage crops, namely corn, corn‐soybean mix and sorghum, and three frequent vegetable wastes, namely carrot, beet and potato. Dry matter (DM), pH, crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD), lactic acid (LA) and butyric acid (BA) concentrations were examined in six silage types. DM, CP, NDF, ADF, IVDMD and LA contents differed significantly ( P < 0.05) among the treatments. Corn silage had a greater DM percentage (32.66%) than ensiled vegetable residues. The highest concentration of CP was observed in fermented forage crops (8.70–9.50%). Silages made of vegetable residues showed significantly reduced ADF values (22.50–23.16%) as compared to ensiled forage crops (32.00–39.16%). The lowest NDF was observed in carrot silage (31.66%). Ensiled potato recorded the highest rate of in vitro digestion (86.33%). In the correlation analysis, it was observed that a highly positive correlation ( P < 0.01) existed between DM and CP ( r = 0.945), NDF ( r = 0.943), and ADF ( r = 0.851). Likewise, high positive correlations were evident between CP and NDF ( r = 0.954) as well as ADF ( r = 0.807). As compared to IVDMD, this was negatively and weakly correlated with ADF ( r = 0.653, P < 0.01), DM ( r = 0.617, P < 0.01) and NDF ( r = 0.545, P < 0.05). Results show that vegetable‐residue silages could be used as an alternative to ensiled forage crops.