Abstract

The high generation of organic residues from the intensive farming of chickens has induced their use as fertilizer for forage crop production. This aimed to evaluate the effect of poultry litter application on agronomic traits and quality of silage of elephant grass. The experiment was conducted in the experimental field of Boa Vista Farm, in district of Cachoeira de Santa Cruz, Viçosa, State of Minas Gerais, in sandy argisol. The experimental period was from November 2014 to February 2015 and the treatments consisted of four levels of fermented poultry litter (0, 4, 8 and 12 ton.ha^-1) with five repetitions. Evaluations consisted of measurements of plant height, stem diameter, number of plants.ha^-1 and green mass yield. In relation to silage, measurements of gas losses, effluents and total losses were performed using the four treatments cited and four repetitions. There was a positive linear effect (P<0.01) of poultry litter level on plant height and a quadratic effect (P<0.01) of poultry litter level on the number of plants.ha^-1, with maximum at 9.1 ton.ha^-1 of poultry litter. There was no treatment effect (P>0.05) on the stem diameter, green mass yield and silage quality.

Key words: Organic waste, Pennisetum purpureum Schum, poultry litter, productivity, qualitative parameters.