Silage Making in the Tropics with Particular Emphasis on Smallholders


ISSN 0259-2517

FAO
PLANT
PRODUCTION
AND PROTECTION
PAPER
161

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Table of Contents


Proceedings of the FAO Electronic Conference on Tropical Silage
1 September to 15 December 1999

Edited by
L. ‘t Mannetje

Electronic Conference Organizers:
Caterina Batello, Stephen Reynolds
FAO Crop and Grassland Service
Len ‘t Mannetje
University of Wageningen, the Netherlands
Max Shelton
University of Queensland, Australia
Andrew Speedy
FAO Animal Production Service
with assistance from
Hector Osorio
CIPAV, Colombia

Rome, 2000

Cover photos (clockwise from large photo, left):

Fodder crop of fertilized Sadabahar, a multicut sorghum x Sudan grass hybrid; near Muzzaffarabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan (Ian R. Lane)

Little bag silage (LBS) making in the Terai, Nepal - chopping fodder (Napier grass and Centro) with guillotine and knife (Ian R. Lane)

LBS making - squeezing and sealing the first bag layer (Ian R. Lane)

Sampling LBS (Ian R. Lane)

A feed preference trial for cattle fed silages made in plastic drums. The silage in the far trough is unwilted and unchopped while the silage in the near trough is the same source material, but chopped, then wilted to approximately 35% DM. The source material is Rumput Taiwan (i.e. Taiwan grass), a hybrid variety of Pennisetum purpureum. It was approximately 40 days old when harvested (Chris Regan)

Feeding LBS made from Sadabahar to Nili-Ravi buffalo near Muzzafarabad, Pakistan (Ian R. Lane)

The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

The designations “developed” and “developing” economies are intended for statistical convenience and do not necessarily express a judgement about the stage reached by a particular country, country territory or area in the development process.

The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations nor of their affiliated organization(s).

ISSN: 92-5-104500-3

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Information Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.

© FAO 2000


Table of Contents


Foreword

Abbreviations commonly used in the text

Paper 1.0: Introduction to the Conference on Silage Making in the Tropics - L. 't Mannetje

Poster 1.1: The place of silage in ruminant production in the humid tropics - C.C. Wong

Poster 1.2: Silage making activities of the Department of Veterinary Services, Malaysia - F.Y. Chin and A.B. Idris

Poster 1.3: Basic reasons for failure of silage production in Pakistan - Syed Hassan Raza

Poster 1.4: Some observations on non-adoption of silage making in central and western India - D.V. Rangnekar

Poster 1.5: Successful smallholder silage production: a case study from northeast Thailand - Ganda Nakamanee

Paper 2.0: Silage fermentation processes and their manipulation - Stefanie J.W.H. Oude Elferink, Frank Driehuis, Jan C. Gottschal, and Sierk F. Spoelstra

Paper 3.0: Use of ensiled forages in large-scale animal production systems - Tom Cowan

Poster 3.1: Use of silage in a year-round feeding system: the case in Sarangani Agricultural Company, Inc., in the southern Philippines - J.M. Montemayor, R.A. Enad and F.U. Galarrita III

Paper 4.0: Grass and legume silages in the tropics - M. Titterton and F.B. Bareeba

Poster 4.1: Silages from tropical forages: nutritional quality and milk production - A. Aminah, C. Abu Bakar and A. Izham

Poster 4.2: Silage quality and losses associated with ensiling of Napier grass, Columbus grass and maize stover under smallholder conditions in Kenya - P.J.M. Snijders and A.P. Wouters

Poster 4.3: Wet season silage production at Taminmin High School, Northen Territory, Australia - Chris Regan

Poster 4.4: Kikuyu grass composition and implications for silage production - A.G. Kaiser, J.W. Piltz, E.J. Havilah and J.F. Hamilton

Poster 4.5: Silage of Cratylia Argentea as a dry-season feeding alternative in Costa Rica - P.J. Argel, M. Lobo di Palma, F. Romero, J. González, C.E. Lascano, P.C. Kerridge and F. Holmann

Poster 4.6: Comparison of the nutritive value of cavalcade and pangola grass forages preserved as silage or hay - Chris Regan

Paper 5.0: The potential use of tropical silage for livestock production, with special reference to smallholders - David H. Machin

Poster 5.1: Little bag silage - Ian R. Lane

Paper 6.0: Silage from by-products for smallholders - Kayouli Chedly and Stephen Lee

Poster 6.1: Tomato pomace and rice straw silage as feed for growing cattle - Rogelio R. Caluya

Poster 6.2: Rumen metabolism of sheep fed silage containing poultry litter - Shahid Rasool, S.H. Raza and Tanveer Ahmad

Poster 6.3: Voluntary intake and digestibility of treated oil palm fronds - M. Wan Zahari, S. Oshio, D. Mohd Jaafar, M.A. Najib, I. Mohd Yunus and M.S. Nor Ismail

Poster 6.4: Sweet corn stover silage production - A.B. Idris, S.M. Yusoff and A. Sharif

Paper 7.0: Silage from tropical cereals and forage crops - G. Ashbell and Z.G. Weinberg

Poster 7.1: Grain corn [maize] silage and forage corn [maize] silage evaluation on Nelore and Canchim cattle performance in feedlot

Poster 7.2: Development of ensiling technology for smallholder cattle owners in Zimbabwe - M. Titterton, O. Mhere, T. Kipnis, G. Ashbell, Z.G. Weinberg and B.V. Maasdorp

Poster 7.3: Sweet sorghum - a fine forage crop for the Beijing region, China - Li Dajue and Song Guangwei

Poster 7.4: Tropical maize silage in central Brazil - Raúl R. Vera and Esteban A. Pizarro

Poster 7.5: Evaluation of different harvest times of four genotypes of sunflower (Helianthus Annuus L.) for ensiling - L.C. Gonçalves, N.M. Rodriguez, L.G.R. Pereira, J.A.S. Rodrigues, I. Borges, A.L.C.C. Borges and E.O.S. Saliba

Paper 8.0: Harvesting and ensiling techniques - Félix Ojeda García

Poster 8.1: Sila-wrapped grass silage production using the small bale system (SBS) for feeding of goats and sheep - S.S. Shariffah Noorhani, A. Aini and A.B. Idris

Poster 8.2: Effect of time of day on the WSC content of Kikuyu grass - Alan G. Kaiser, John W. Piltz, John F. Hamilton and Euie J. Havilah

Poster 8.3: Quality and nutritive value of Napier grass silage at different growth stages and chopped or unchopped in northeast Thailand - Mitsuru Shinoda, Tomoyuki Kawashima, Pimpaporn Pholsen and Taweesak Chuenpreecha

Paper 9.0: Additives to improve the silage making process with tropical forages - Paulo R.F. Mühlbach

Poster 9.1: The use of molasses to improve the fermentation of low-dry-matter Kikuyu grass silages - John W. Piltz, Alan G. Kaiser, John F. Hamilton and Euie J. Havilah

Poster 9.2: Use of dehydrated sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) as an additive to Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) ensilage - José Neuman Miranda Neiva, Ana Cristina Holanda Ferreira and Maurício Teixeira

Paper 10.0: The future of silage making in the tropics - L. 't Mannetje

Paper 11.0: Summary of the discussion - L. 't Mannetje

Paper 12.0: Final remarks and analysis of questionnaire responses - S.G. Reynolds

FAO Technical Papers

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