Produção e qualidade da silagem de híbridos de milho em cultivo solteiro e consórcio com Panicum maximum

Abstract

Corn is one of the most important crops in agricultural production in Brazil, being the third largest producer in the world. Most ofthe total demand is for animal feed. That said, corn silage offers a large volume of palatable food, rich in energy and with excellent digestibility, favoring the production of meat or milk. The objective of this work was to evaluate the yield and forage quality of three maize hybrids (Zea mays L.): MZ1952, AGRI330 and AGRI340, cultivated in single and intercropped with Panicum maximum cv. BRS Zuri. Six treatments were evaluated in a randomized block design with two replications. After sample collections, the following agronomic characteristics were evaluated: green mass productivity (VM), dry mass productivity (DM), crude protein content (CP), plant height (AP), ear insertion height (IEA), stem diameter (DC), number of rows per ear (NFE), number of grains per row (NGF), ear diameter (DE), ear length (CE), grain yield (PROD) and mass one hundred grains (MCG). The coefficient of variation estimates obtained were less than 10%, indicating experimental homogeneity and low random variation. There were differences between treatments for all characters evaluated, except for PB, NFE and DE. The hybrid MZ1952 cultivated in a single way stood out for obtaining the highest averages for the charactersrelated to silage production. The hybrid AGRI330 cultivated in a single way stood out for obtaining the highest averages for the characters related to grain production. The results of the analysis of canonical variables were in agreement with those obtained by the analysis of variance.