Effect of fermented period on corn silage quality

The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of fermentation periods on corn silage quality and investigate the chemical composition in corn silage in different fermentation periods. Silages are left to undergo fermentation process for 21, 60 and 90 day. A small amount is taken as sample for 0 day. The step is repeated for the other fermented periods. Silage is analyzed using proximate analysis to determine the dry matter (DM), moisture, crude fat (EE), crude protein (CP) and ash content. Data from the proximate analysis is analyzed using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Result for proximate analysis found that fermentation
period has a significant effect (P <0.005) on chemical composition. Result from experiment of means DM found that corn silage with 21 day fermented period had the highest DM content (37.50 ± 0.53) compared to other fermented periods. The result for CP content found out that silage with 90 day fermented period had high content of CP which is 16.20 ± 0.56. Whereas, the silage of 21 day has the highest mean of EE (1.53 ± 0.04) and for ash content, 90 day fermented period of silage had the highest mean of ash content which is 6.02 ± 0.32. I concluded that corn silage with higher DM content and being fermented for 21 day contained the nutritive values among all treatments combinations.