Eight ¾ Indubrazil/Holstein heifers, averaging 160 kg, were assigned to 4 x 4 latin squares, during four periods of 21 days, 15 days of adaptation and six days of samples collection. The animals were fed a diet with 60:40 roughage:concentrate (DM basis), using as roughage sorghum silage, ensiled with DM content of 30%, and as concentrate, corn and soybean meal, with 15.6% crude protein. The treatments were: T1 - control (silage without additive), T2 - silage treated with 2.5% sodium sulfide, T3 - silage treated with 2.5% anhydrous ammonia and T4 - silage treated with 2.5% sodium sulfide + 2.5% anhydrous ammonia, all in dry matter basis, using storage time of six months for all treatments. Dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) daily intakes, in percentage of live weight and metabolic weight, were studied. It was verified effect for all studied variables, where the higher intake values were observed for the sorghum silage treated with ammonia, while sodium sulfide did not show any effect. These values show the anhydrous ammonia efficiency on the action of cell wall constituents, resulting in higher intake.
ammoniation; conservation; intake
