Whole-crop cereals silage: Quality forage in the heat and drought condition

Abstract

Last year (2012) will be marked as one of the worst in the History of Agriculture in Republic of Serbia. Heat and drought affected low quantity and quality of forage. In the same year we had lack of hay and maize silage. According weather forecast and anti­cipated climatic changes in the future, farmers need to found new ways to provide forage, especially in the "no irrigation" plant farming. In that way, ensiling of whole-crop cereals could be one of the solutions, because of theirs nutritive values, yields and all risks of heat and drought from planting to harvesting.

Protekla 2012. god. u istoriji poljoprivredne proizvodnje u Srbiji biće označena kao jedna od najnepovoljnijih, posebno kada je u pitanju količina i kvalitet kabaste stočne hrane za ishranu preživara, naročito mlečnih krava (nedostatak i slab kvalitet sena i silaža kukuruza). Sa postojećim klimatskim predviđanjima u budućnosti se može očekivati nedostatak kabaste stočne hrane u uslovima "suvog" ratarenja. Jedno od mogućih rešenja je korišćenje strnih žita za pripremanje silaža i sena, kako zbog svojih nutritivnih vrednosti, tako i zbog prinosa i smanjenih rizika od suše i visokih temperatura.