RESEARCHES REGARDING THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND GROSS ENERGY OF SORGHUM IN COMPARISON TO OTHER FORAGES FOR FEEDING CATTLE AND PIGS.

Sorghum is recommended to be grown in drier areas, being able to exploit the salty soils where the cereal growing is more difficult. For an efficient use in the animal organism, the grains of sorghum should be prepared by grinding, being also possible to be used in the compound feed recipes or in the mixtures of concentrates, and the sorghum plants through ensilaging. Some varieties of sorghum contain higher amounts of tannin, which negatively affects the animal performances. The purpose of the current study was to compare the chemical composition of two sorghum hybrids with other feeds for cattle or swine feeding. The recorded data showed that the chemical composition of the two analyzed sorghum hybrids was close, as there were no differences between the samples of grain or of pickled forage. The chemical composition of sorghum grains was close to that of maize, except for the crude protein, which was higher and that of crude fat, which was lower. Sorghum silage showed a higher content in ash and crude fiber, while crude protein, crude fat and N-free extractives were lower compared to maize silage. The calculated values for gross energy of analyzed forages are within the recommended values from the speciality literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]