Potato scrapings were mixed with sugarcane (Sacharum officinarum L.) in the silage. Sugarcane was havested manually after a leveling cut had been done at a height of 10 cm from the soil surface. The mixtures of sugarcane and potato scrapings were made in the following ratios of natural matter: 100% and 0%; 93% and 7%; 86% and 14%; 79% and 21%; and 72% and 28% of sugarcane and potato scrapings, respectively. The plants were chopped into 2-3 cm particles and ensiled for 30 days in 10 cm wide x 40 cm high "PVC" silos. The following variables of the silage were evaluated: percentage of dry matter (DM), pH values, gas lossses, effluent losses, crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), and in vitro digestibility of dry matter (IVDDM). The experimental design used was the completely randomized with four replications. The sugarcane silages added with potato scrapings exhibited higher percentages of DM and CP, higher values of pH, increase in the IVDDM, and a lower percentage of loss of gases, loss of effluent, NDF and ADF in dry matter with increasing levels of replacement. It was concluded that the dry potato scrapings added to the sugarcane in silage improved the chemical and nutritional characteristics of the silages.
Silages; efluent; gases; digestibility
