Mineral profile, carbohydrates fractionation, nitrogen compounds and in vitro gas production of elephant grass silages associated with cactus pear

Bulletin of the National Research Centre

Table 3 Carbohydrate fractionation and nitrogen compounds of elephant grass associated with different levels of cactus pear (n = 5)

Variables	Cactus pear levels (g/kg DM)				SEM	P-value
Variables	0	150	300	450	SEM	L	Q
Carbohydrates fractionation
TC (g/kg DM)^a	709.3	825.3	832.3	841.8	3.44	< 0.001	0.370
A + B1 (g/kg TC)^b	294.0	418.5	437.7	453.8	15.41	0.002	0.004
B2 (g/kg TC)^c	371.8	271.1	260.1	258.9	20.90	0.001	0.032
C (g/kg TC)	334.2	222.6	202.2	195.1	17.73	0.084	0.674
Nitrogen compounds
CP (g/kg DM)	56.8	51.5	55.0	56.4	1.72	0.763	0.085
A (g/kg CP)	17.7	16.5	18.1	17.9	0.48	0.297	0.320
B1 + B2 (g/kg CP)^d	950.8	951.7	944.9	944.2	1.34	0.002	0.570
B3 (g/kg CP)	3.6	7.5	5.0	5.0	1.15	0.777	0.132
C (g/kg CP)^e	27.9	24.3	32.0	32.9	1.40	0.007	0.021

DM dry matter, TC total carbohydrates, CP crude protein, SEM standard error of the mean, L linear effect, Q quadratic effect
Significance at 5% of probability
^aŷ = 842.8533 + 0.6956x, R² = 0.96
^bŷ = 203.0490 + 34.9699x, R² = 0.86
^cŷ = 377.8999–2.3490x, R² = 0.85
^dŷ = 951.8833–0.1770x, R² = 0.78
^eŷ = 25.8773 + 0.1507x, R² = 0.54