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Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences

Year: 2006 | Volume: 9 | Issue: 13 | Page No.: 2450-2455
DOI: 10.3923/pjbs.2006.2450.2455
Comparing the Performance of Sorghum Silage with Maize Silage in Feedlot Calves
H. Fazaeli, H. A. Golmohhammadi, A. Al-Moddarres, S. Mosharraf and A. A. Shoaei

Abstract: Sweet sorghum and maize were cultivated, in research station where the agronomic parameters recorded and the forage harvested and ensiled when the seeds were at dough stage. At the second step, 32 yearling male calves with 229±1.2 kg initial weight, were used to assess their fattening performances with two types of silages (sorghum and maize), using a completely randomized design with four diets where maize silage was substituted with sorghum silage in the amount of 0, 33, 66 and 100% of diets I, II, III and VI, respectively. The sorghum seed required ha-1 was much lower (4 vs. 30 kg ha-1) than that of the maize as well as the number of irrigations (8 vs. 11). However, the amount of forage yield per hectare was relatively similar for both crops. During the 120 days of feeding trial, average daily gain were 1037, 1068, 1010 and 1157 g for the diets I, II, III and VI, respectively which were not significantly different (p<0.05). The average dry mater intake was 7.50, 7.56, 7.74 and 8.06 kg, feed conversion ratio 7.23, 7.07, 7.66 and 6.59, respectively that were not significantly different (p<0.05). It conclusion, feeding performance of the sorghum silage was similar to the maize silage with the advantages of agronomy parameters.

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How to cite this article
H. Fazaeli, H. A. Golmohhammadi, A. Al-Moddarres, S. Mosharraf and A. A. Shoaei, 2006. Comparing the Performance of Sorghum Silage with Maize Silage in Feedlot Calves. Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences, 9: 2450-2455.

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