Full Length Research Paper

Effects of compaction and maturity stages on sunflower silage quality

F. Toruk¹, E. Gonulol¹, B. Kayısoglu¹ and  F. Koc²

¹Department of Agricultural Machinery, Namık Kemal University, 59030 Tekirdağ, Turkey.

2Department of Animal science, Namık Kemal University 59030 Tekirdağ, Turkey.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: ftoruk@nku.edu.tr . Tel: +90 282 2931442.

Fax: +90 282 2931378.

Accepted 19 November, 2009

   Abstract

The aim of this research was to determine sunflower silage quality under different compaction conditions of the whole-plant sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) harvested at three different maturity stages. These were the beginning of Anthesis, one-third Milk Line, and Black Line. Five compaction applications (control, vacuum and compaction with 150, 248 and 498 kPa) were carried out in the study. For this purpose, cylindrical plastic mini-silos (5.2 L) were used. The chopped forages were compacted in mini-silos at five pressure levels. Each treatment was ensiled for 50 days in cylindrical plastic mini-silos (5.2 L) silos with three replications. This study showed that compaction level and maturity stage had significant effects on silage quality (p < 0.05). The dry-matter content increased in the silages with maturity. The best results were observed when harvesting at the stage of one-third Milk Line and compaction with the level 498 kPa.

Key words: Sunflower silage, maturity stage, compaction level