Traits of importance for corn silage production

The study aimed to identify the phenotypic classes and the relative contribution of traits, which points linear associations and the genetic variation among corn hybrids used for silage production. Was conducted in 2012/2013 crop year, in the city of Campos Borges – RS. The experimental design was a randomized complete blocks, with eight corn hybrids, arranged in six replications. The analysis showed significance at 5% probability tomineral material (MM), total crude protein (PTN), hemicellulose (HEM), lipids (LIP), total carbohydrates (TC) and non-fiber carbohydrates (NFC). However, no significant differences were observed for plant height (PH), ear insertion height (EIH), prolificity (PRO), chlorophyll content (CC), hydrogenic potential (pH), dry mass percentage of silage (DMPS), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), lignin (LIG), cellulose (CEL), leaf area (AF), green mass yield per hectare (GMY) and dry mass yield per hectare (DMY). The frequency distributions indicate that the traits with more phenotypic classes were the total crude protein and hemicellulose. The cellulose present high relationship with the structural carbohydrates fraction and difficult digest. The cellulose and hemicellulose percentage is inversely proportional to the non-fibrous carbohydrates of corn silage. Neutral detergent fiber, non-fibrous carbohydrates and hemicellulose traits are those that contribute most to discrimination of corn genotypes. The contribution of descriptive, univariate and multivariate analysis demonstrate to be techniques which can be used successfully in the discrimination of corn genotypes and traits of importance for the production of corn silage.