Silage for Cattle Feeding in Venezuela

Resumen

Silage is the most economical food to guarantee animal feeding throughout the whole year. Lack of information, economic resources, and farming equipment restrain many farmers from applying this agro technology. Based on these reasons, the present research examines the current trends in animal food conservation in Venezuela. So far, si- lage is manufactured out of entire maize plants and silos store harvested pastures, forage grass independently culti- vated, and forage-legume mixture. The last feeding variant is highly profitable due to its excellent productive results and low costs. Nutrient contents in maize silage are dry matter (28 %-35 %) and raw protein (8.3 %-15.2 %). Ru- minal degradability levels range between 76 % and 82 % due to legume content and urea supplementation  to the bulk. These findings  are consistent  with average  milk production  over 3 kg/cow/day  and milk products  sales. It should be noted that the best silage for cattle feeding consists of a grass-legume mixture in which legume content is not above 30 %.