EVALUATION OF CORN SILAGE FROM DIFFERENT REGIONS IN EGYPT

The main objective of this study was to evaluate different samples of  corn silage (Whole corn plant with ears) from different regions in Egypt to determine each sample has the highest nutritive value and nutrients digestibility and therefore reduce the feed cost, increase feed efficiency and probability of lactating dairy farms. Silage samples were collected from different four areas in Egypt; El-Salhya, El-Nobarya, El-Monofia and Ganakles. The study Included three field and laboratory work cores which were; chemical composition, in-vitro and in-situ evaluation studies. The samples were analyzed for its chemical composition, Dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL). The silage samples were evaluated in-vitro and in-situ. In-vitro evaluation was conducted using gas production technic. Gas production (GP) was recorded at 0, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24 and 48 hours of incubation. The organic matter digestibility (OMD), short chain fatty acids (SCFA), and metabolizable energy (ME) were measured. The in-situ experiment, involved nylon bags containing silage samples from different regions were incubated in three fistulated Barki rams for 24h. Samples were taken out at 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24h of incubation. The obtained results indicated that the Ganakles silage ampel recorded the lowest (P<0.01) values of GP within the different times compared to others. The silage from El-Salhya had the highest (P<0.01) values for OMD and SCFA. The DMD of in-situ samples was significantly (P<0.01) increased within the different times of incubation with Al-Salhia silage samples, but the lowest significant values (P<0.01) were recorded  with Al-Nobaria silage samples. Depending on invitro and in-situ results for silage type results, in vitro and in-situ for silage type from Al-Salhia area had a best characteristics of good silage and was chosen forever conducting lactation trial.