Investigation of quinoa forage silage characteristics

The objective of this study was to investigate the possibility of preparing silage, determine nutritive value and characteristics of silage prepared from three genotypes of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa willd.) forage (Sjama, Titicaca and Q12) in a completely randomized design. The chopped forages were siloed with four replications in laboratory silos. After 60 days, the silos were opened and the appearance characteristics of the silages were examined. The quinoa silages were sampled for analysis concentration of chemical composition and silage characteristics. The results show that, the duration of sowing to the dough stage of seeds was 60 days in Kerman climate. In silage of Sajama, Titicaca and Q12 genotypes, the average of dry matter (P<0.01) was 20.36, 22.99 and 22.21%, the concentration of crude protein (P<0.01) was 13.50, 14.21 and 14.31% respectively. The characteristics score of silages were 16.75, 17.50 and 18.13 in a 0 to 20 scoring system for Sjama, Titicaca and Q12 genotypes respectively (P<0.01), Quinoa forage silage had a high buffering capacity and were determined 273.09, 195.90 and 200.33 meq NaOH for Sjama, Titicaca and Q12 genotypes respectively (P<0.01). In general, the results have shown that quinoa forage silage have an acceptable quality, especially in crude protein concentration and can be used as a substitution feedstuff in ruminant nutrition. However, there are many differences between genotypes in chemical composition and silage properties. It seems some genotypes (Sejama) don’t have the potential for silage production and more studies are needed to select the appropriate genotypes.