Fibre and ergosterol contents in forage of Arrhenatherum elatius, Dactylis glomerata and Festulolium at the end of the growing seaso

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the contents of CF, NDF, ADF and ergosterol in the forage of Fistulolium, Dactylis glomerata and Arrhenatherum elatius from stands harvested at the end of the growing season. The contents of CF, NDF and ADF were analysed using the ANKOM Fibre Analyzer instrument. The ergosterol content was analysed by the HPLC method. The lowest CF content was in the Festulolium forage matter (26.8%). Conversely, the highest content was in the Arrhenatherum elatius forage (30.2%). The CF content gradually increased during autumn from 28.0% to 29.4%. Likewise, the NDF and ADF contents were lowest in Festulolium (58.3% and 32.3%, respectively). The highest NDF content was in Arrhenatherum elatius (60.5%). The ADF contents in Arrhenatherum elatius and Dactylis glomerata were comparable (35.9% and 35.1%, respectively). The NDF content increased during autumn from 56.4% to 62.0% and ADF content from 32.8% to 36.4%. The ergosterol content suggests a lower infestation of the Festulolium forage by fungi. While this content in the Festulolium forage was 94.9 mg/kg of dry matter (DM), in the Dactylis glomerata forage it was 136.7 mg/kg DM and in the Arrhenatherum elatius forage 139.9 mg/kg DM. Forage samples taken in December contained ergosterol on a level of 248.6 mg/kg DM. The species under study and the time of use in autumn exhibited a statistically highly significant effect (P < 0.01) on the contents of CF, NDF, ADF and ergosterol in the forage matter.