Relative appraisal among different sugarcane varieties for quality of sugarcane tops silage as non-conventional feed resource

The study included evaluation of nutritive quality of tops of four sugarcane varieties (Co 118, CoJ 88, CoPb 93 and CoPb92), berseem (BL-10) and silage made from them. Four types of silage were prepared by mixing sugarcane tops of each variety with barseem in a fixed proportion of 60:40 sugarcane and barseem, respectively. Mixture of tops of sugarcane varieties Co 118, CoJ 88, CoPb 92 and CoPb 93 with barseem variety BL 10 was referred as silage-I, silage-II, silage-III and silage IV, respectively. Tops of each sugarcane variety, berseem and silages were evaluated for their nutritional composition. Variety CoJ 88 contain highest dry matter content (30.1%) whereas variety Co118 contain highest percent crude protein (5.05%) among all varieties. The acid detergent fiber (38.8%) and ADL(5.0%) were lowest in variety CoPb92. Silage I had highest CP (8.30%), NDF(66.6%),ADF(35.3%) and ADL(4.20%) levels whereas silage III had significantly lower CP, NDF, ADF and ADL. Predicted palatability/intake and energy quality parameters indicated that DMI (1.80%), DDM(61.4%), TDN (63.1%), RFV (85.8%), RFQ (2.03%) and NEL(1.43Mcal/Kg)values were highest for silage III. Fermentation quality parameters like acetic acid content (2.89%) and TVFA (5.17) of CoPb 92 were optimum. It was concluded that among all four varieties, CoPb 92 mixed with berseem (BL-10) in 60:40 ratio gives the most appropriate quality of silage.