Influence of nitrogen on yield, forage quality, and corn silage
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| Autores: | , , , |
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| Formato: | artículo original |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de Publicación: | 2025 |
| Descripción: | Introduction. The production of maize forage for silage is essential for livestock feeding, and its yield and quality largely depend on nitrogen fertilization. Objective. To evaluate the effect of nitrogen fertilization on the agronomic performance and nutritional quality of maize forage and silage. Materials and methods. The study was conducted at the “La María” Campus of the Technical State University of Quevedo (UTEQ), Ecuador, during the rainy season (December–April, 2024), under a completely randomized design with four nitrogen rates (0, 100, 150, and 200 kg ha⁻¹) and four replications, totaling sixteen experimental units. Evaluated variables included agronomic traits (plant height, stem diameter, fresh and dry weight), silage physicochemical characteristics (moisture, pH, and temperature), and nutritional quality (crude protein, energy, neutral detergent fiber (NFD), acid detergent fiber (AFD), and ash). Data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), and significant differences among means were determined with Tukey’s test at a 5% probability level, employing Infostat® v.2020 software. Results. T3 showed the highest stem diameter (1.32, 2.33, and 2.37 cm at 20, 40, and 60 days, respectively) and plant height (184.90 and 241.59 cm at 40 and 60 days, respectively). It also achieved the highest values for fresh weight (95.5 t ha⁻¹), dry weight (29.5 t ha⁻¹), leaf protein (14.5 %), and stem protein (5.68 %). In contrast, no significant differences were observed among treatments for moisture, energy, NDF, ADF, and pH. Conclusions. The application of 200 kg ha⁻¹ of nitrogen improved both the nutritional quality and forage yield. |
| País: | Portal de Revistas UCR |
| Institución: | Universidad de Costa Rica |
| Repositorio: | Portal de Revistas UCR |
| Lenguaje: | Español |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:portal.revistas.ucr.ac.cr:article/3239 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/ragromeso/article/view/3239 |
| Palabra clave: | nutritional quality agronomic performance silage nitrogen fertilization calidad nutricional comportamiento agronómico ensilaje fertilización nitrogenada |