Nutrient content and organic matter degradability of different morphological parts of maize hybrids dent and dent x flint

Abstract

The aim of our study was to determine the nutrient content and organic matter degradability of different morphological parts (whole plants, stalks, leaves) of maize hybrids dent and dent x flint. Ruminal degradability was determined by in sacco method. Hybrids dent x flint - Mesnil, Chambord, Queen, and hybrids dent - Aude, Meridien, KX 1393, Omero were used. The content of ADF, NDF and lignin in the stalks was higher in the dent than in dent x flint hybrids. Concentration of crude protein (CP) in leaves was two times higher than in stalks (117.0 g.kg-1 DM and 53.0 g.kg-1 DM on average, respectively). The differences were also noted in CP among the hybrids in all plant parts. Large differences were found in starch content among the hybrids in whole plants: in Mesnil it was 329.0 g.kg-1 of DM, whereas in Meridien the starch content was 193.0 g.kg-1 of DM only. In sacco experiment was carried out on three rumen cannulated cows. Hybrids dent x flint had on average higher effective organic matter degradability in whole plants (56.1 %), stalks (38.8 %) and leaves (49.2 %) than hybrids dent (53.8 %, 35.2 % and 43.3 %). Also, the rate of degradation of organic matter (OM) was higher for hybrids dent x flint than for dent. Organic matter in the stalks was degraded more slowly than in leaves.