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MEKARN Conference 2010 |
**TOSOLY, UTA-Colombia, AA#48, Socorro, Santander, Colombia
An experiment was carried out to examine the effect of ensiling banana pseudo stem with Taro leaves and petioles. Chopped samples of each plant were ensiled in plastic bags alone or as a 50:50 mixture (DM basis) over a period of 7 days. pH values in the Taro and Taro-pseudo stem silages fell to 4.0 – 4.5 within 24 h and then to 3.0 – 3.5 after 4 days with no differences between the two silages. pH of the ensiled banana pseudo stem alone was in the range of 5;0 – 5.5 throughout the 7 day ensiling period. Soluble sugars were highest in the Taro silage and lowest in the pseudo-stem silage.
It is concluded that ensiling Taro foliage (leaves + petioles) with banana pseudo-stem markedly improved the quality of the final product as compared with un-supplemented pseudo-stem, and that the Taro petioles are a good source of energy because of the content of NDF and ADF and high content of sugars. The potential nutritive value for ruminants of the ensiled Taro foliage/banana pseudo-stem combination should be investigated.
Key words: ADF, energy, NDF, pH, sugars
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Figure 1. Pattern of pH change in ensiled banana pseudo-stem (BS) with and without incorporation (50:50 DM basis) of Taro foliage (changes in the pH of Taro silage are also shown) |
Figure 2. Change of soluble sugars in ensiled banana pseudo-stem (BS) with and without incorporation (50:50 DM basis) of Taro foliage (changes in Taro silage are also shown) |
