Effects on yield and nutritional value of corn silage from corn treated with foliar fungicide and microbial inoculant on ensiling

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to evaluate the yield, the morphometric characteristics, and the nutritional value of corn with use of foliar fungicide associated with inoculant on ensiling on the chemical-fermentative characteristics of silage. The applications of fungicide pyraclostrobin + fluxpyroxade were carried out in vegetative-eight and tasseling stage, and the evaluations of plants occurred simultaneously at harvest (dough grain stage), during which application was made with inoculant consisting of strains of Lactobacillus buchneri and L. casei for silage production. The use of fungicide decreased the percentage of leaf area affected by Diplodia macrospora Earle, Cercospora zeae-maydis and Phaeosphaeria maydis. At harvest, corn showed fewer dry leaves and higher yields of fresh (66,368vs. 62,015kg·ha-1) and dry biomass (20,964 vs. 19,485kg·ha-1) with fungicide. The fungicide also reduced the LDA content from 5.99% to 5.16%, which generated greater ISDMD for whole plant (43.14 and 62.57%, for 24 and 48 hours, respectively). The association of fungicide with inoculant promoted higher concentration of acetic acid than when each was used alone, and the dry matter losses of silage with inoculant were higher than control silage (8.88vs. 12.78%, respectively). Fungicide and inoculant used in combination provided silages with lower fibrous content.