Quality parameters of maize biomass as a feed raw material

Maize is one of the most important crops, and as such, one of the most significant feed raw materials. As a high-yielding carbohydrate plant, maize is very competitive compared to other cereals in animal feeding. Furthermore, maize is the most important forage plant by the amount of yield, biomass quality, its suitability for silage, versatility of use for animal feed. In order to define more fully the quality parameters of maize biomass, as well as, its nutritive value, it is necessary to study the structure of cell walls of the whole plant. Analyses of the fibre or cell walls in forages is of major concern in ruminant nutrition because diets often contain large amounts of forage, and the fibre fraction affects both feed intake and animal performance. The objective of this study was to observe quality parameters of biomass of eleven ZP maize silage hybrids of different genetic background and to determine the relationship of these parameters, as well as, their effects on the digestibility of maize biomass dry matter. The hybrids of the FAO maturity groups 200-800 (ZP 209, ZP 388, ZP 427, ZP 588, ZP 600, ZP 606, ZP 623, ZP 677, ZP 725, ZP 789 and ZP 873) were used in the study. The contents of the lignocelluloses fraction were determined by the modified Van Soest detergent method, while in vitro digestibility of the whole plant was established by the Aufréré method. Obtained results showed that the NDF, ADF and ADL contents in the whole maize plant of the observed ZP maize hybrids varied from 42.6% to 52.7%, 19.3% to 26.6%, and 1.5% to 2.4%, respectively. The difference in the digestibility of the dry matter of the whole plant among hybrids amounted to 11.8%. Moreover, the differences in the contents of the lignocelluloses fraction affected the differences in dry matter digestibility.