High moisture corn silage in diets for growing rabbits

Digestibility and performance experiments were carried out to evaluate the nutrients digestibility coefficients of high moisture corn silage (HMCS) and the gradative replacing (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%) of dry grain corn by HMCS on performance and carcass yield of growing rabbits from 36 to 70 days old. In the digestibility experiment 22 rabbits were used allocated on a completely randomized design, with two treatments and 11 replicates. The values of digestible dry matter, digestible crude protein, digestible crude energy, digestible neutral fiber detergent, digestible acid fiber detergent and digestible starch were, respectively, 94.42%; 7.94%; 3973kcal kg-1; 6.74%; 2.61% and 68.73%. In the performance experiment, 110 rabbits were allocated on a completely randomized design, with five treatments, 11 replications and two rabbits per experimental unit. The HMCS replaced the dry grain corn in levels of 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%, on dry matter basis. No differences were observed on performance in the period from 36 to 50 and the period from 36 to 70 days old. No difference was observed also on weight and carcass yield. The results showed that the HMCS replaces efficiently the dry grain corn in rabbit diets.

carcass yield; digestibility; feed conversion; performance