Productivity, profitability and nutritional quality of forage and silage of winter cereals

This study aimed to evaluate the production, the physical and nutritional composition of forage and silage, as well as the profitability and aerobic stability of different winter cereals harvested at the stage of floury grain. The experimental design was a 2x7 factorial randomized block design, with two forms of foods (fresh forage and silage) and seven genotypes, with four replications. The genotypes used were the white oat (Avena sativa) cv. URS Taura; barley (Hordeum vulgare) cv. BRS Brau and cv. BRS Cauê; wheat (Tricticum aestivum) cv. CD 1440; rye (Secale cereal) cv. BR 01; and triticale (X Triticosecale) cv. IPR 111 and cv. BRS Saturno. The materials were harvested during the stage of floury grain. In forage evaluation, rye showed the highest (P < 0,05) dry biomass production (7,100 kg ha-1), but with a higher percentage of stem (46.7%) in dry matter, implying higher ADF (44.69%) in relation to other cereals. The forage of the white oats cv. URS Taura and triticale cv. IPR 111 provided the best nutritional quality compared to the other evaluated cereals, but in the resulting silage, only triticale remained with forage-like characteristics. It was clear the superiority of barley cv. BRS Cauê, wheat cv. CD 1440 and rye cv. BR 01 regarding the maintenance of aerobic stability (160 hours), while the other silages lost their stability within 32 hours. Rye cv. BR 01 and triticale IPR 111 presented the highest production of recovered dry biomass (5,402 and 5,352 kg ha-1 respectively), barley cv. BRS Cauê and oat URS Taura provided higher cost of production per kg-1 dry biomass, both with R$ 0.29 and higher cost per kg of recovered dry biomass R$ 0.45 and 0.37 respectively. There are several factors to consider when choosing the winter species for silage production, and future studies can fully elucidate these factors.