A Scoping Review on Sorghum Silage Quality Enhancement with Advanced Ensiling Operations

Adequate animal nutrition is one of the vital prerequisites to enhance the productivity and performance of ruminants in terms of milk and meat production. Fodders preserved as silage have the potential to supply animal feed even during months of scorching heat of sun. Silage is preserved fodder produced in an anaerobic condition by the fermentation process in specialized air tight structures called silos. Properly prepared silage usually has equivalent or even higher nutritional value of the original fodder. Forage sorghum has been found to be excellent choice for silage making as it gives a comparatively higher tonnage of green forage yield on per hectare basis and it uses only one third of nitrogen and water than that of forage maize. Proper moisture, plant sugar levels, anaerobic conditions and bacterial cultures for fermentation process are the basic elements of silage making. Chop length, plant moisture, sugar levels and silage inoculants are some of the factors that influence the quality of sorghum silage. Prussic acid and nitrate toxicity are potentially harmful compounds which may deteriorate silage quality and may even leads to animal death. To avoid prussic acid and nitrate accumulation, sorghum should never be harvested immediately after drought, prolonged cloudy conditions, frost and in cool temperatures after hotter ones. In this way, high quality sorghum silage can go a long way in increasing the productivity of milch animals and can play its due role in ensuring the food security of teeming millions across the globe.