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: | 2026 |
| Descripción: | Introduction. Maize forage production for silage is essential in 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, Ecuador, during the rainy season from December to 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. Agronomic variables (plant height, stem diameter, fresh and dry weight), silage physicochemical characteristics (moisture, pH and temperature), and nutritional parameters (crude protein, energy, neutral detergent fiber [NDF], acid detergent fiber [ADF] and ash) were evaluated. Data were subjected to analysis of variance and Tukey’s test at a 5% probability level. Results. Treatment 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 reached 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 %). 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 nutritional quality and forage production. |
| País: | Portal de Revistas UCR |
| Institución: | Universidad de Costa Rica |
| Repositorio: | Portal de Revistas UCR |
| Lenguaje: | Español Inglés |
| 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 |