Elephant grass silage added to passion fruit's peel

We evaluated the fermentative, chemical and qualitative characteristics of elephant grass silage containing different levels of inclusion of coproduct extraction of the passion fruit pulp in nature, passion fruit peel (CM). We used increasing levels of addition of this coproduct (0.0, 12.5, 25.0, 37.5 and 50.0%) in relation to natural field of elephant grass during ensiling. The silages were obtained from the cut forage at 150 days of age. The material was ensiled in laboratory silos, and after 180 days, the silos were opened and samples were collected for determination of dry matter (DM); soluble carbohydrates (CHOS); hydrogen potential (pH); ammonia nitrogen in percentage of total nitrogen (NNH3/NT); ether extract (EE); crude protein (CP); neutral detergent insoluble protein as a percentage of total nitrogen (NDIP/NT); acid detergent insoluble protein as a percentage of total nitrogen (PIDA/NT); neutral detergent fiber (NDF); acid detergent fiber (ADF); cellulose (CEL); lignin (LIG); neutral detergent insoluble nitrogen (NDIN); acid detergent insoluble nitrogen (ADIN) and in vitro digestibility of dry matter (IVDDM). To assess the effect of the treatments we used a completely randomized design with four replications, running the regression analysis for each variable analyzed (P<0.05). According to the regression equations for the fermentative characteristics, silage can be considered very good quality. As for fiber digestibility of silage, the increasing levels of this coproduct contributed to decrease it, which resulted in higher IVDDM. The parameters analyzed showed that the inclusion of CM in nature with elephant grass silage is recommended at all levels evaluated.