Produção e silagem de sorgo forrageiro em função do espaçamento e do manejo de plantas daninhas

Abstract

Forage sorghum is a crop with high forage yield per hectare, with large scale for silage production. It is cultivated in several regions of Brazil and easily adapts to different cropping systems. Thus, the objective of this research was to analyze the growth, production and chemical composition of forage sorghum silage as a function of different weed control and spacing between raw. The experimental design was randomized blocks, in subdivided plots with four replications, the treatments of the plot being the spacings (40, 50, 60, 70, 80 cm between rows) and in the subplot the weed control methods: herbicide; manual hoeing with hoe and without weeding. The silage was made in mini silos. The aerial part dry matter (DMAP), leaf area index (LAI), relative growth rate (RGR), crop growth rate (CGR) net assimilation rate (NAR). The dry matter of the weeds, dry matter of the sorghum, dry matter of the morphological components (leaf, stem and panicle) and sorghum leaf area in silage were evaluated for productivity analysis. Weed control, together with the larger spacings, provided greater accumulation of DMAP, but smaller spacings produced higher LAI, DLA, and GRC. The best productive indexes were found when weed control with herbicide allied to the spacing 50 cm between rows, providing higher dry matter yield of the sorghum in t haˉ¹ and, together with the spacing of 40 cm, the lowest yields of dry matter of weeds in t haˉ¹. Besides the better proportions of the morphological components compared to the treatment with weed that had a higher proportion of stem, less leaves and panicle. In the chemical composition, the weed control with herbicide, together with the smaller spacings (40, 50, 60 cm), were shown to be more efficient favoring silage quality, with higher levels of crude protein (CP), mineral matter (MM) and lower neutral detergent fiber (NDF). The reduction of the spacings and the chemical control of weeds provided better growth rates, higher productivity and better chemical composition of the silage for the forage sorghum, being indispensable the weed control in the environmental conditions of Central Amazonia.