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Silage has been widely used in dairy production. However, little is known about its use at production level. The goal of this study was to characterize production and usage of silage for the dairy farming in Western Santa Catarina state. Thirty farms were selected randomly by their geographical location, in 11 municipalities of the West of Santa Catarina state, and they were invited to participate in the research. Out of these 30 farms, 6 did not have any dairy activity, and 2 preferred not to participate in the research, thus were not included. Semi-structured interviews and on-site visits were then performed. All data were analyzed with the software R version 3.2.2. 95% of the farmers produced and fed silage to animals. Out of the 22 farmers participating in the study, 82% provided silage for dairy cows during the whole year; in 86% of these farms, the silage was fed right after milking, in an average amount of 6.06 ± 0.63 kg DM (dry matter) AU-1 (animal unit, 500 kg) day-1. The average area used for maize production was 8.46 ha, representing 59% of the area destined to dairy farming. The average silage production was 8.8 and 7.6 t ha-1 year-1 in the season and off-season crop respectively, without significant differences. In most silage production areas, the no-tillage system is adopted, with the use of pesticides, chemical fertilization and transgenic seeds, without soil covering or crop rotation. Farms that fertilized maize based on soil analysis had the greatest silage yield, compared to the ones that fertilized without relying on soil analysis. The use of different types of pesticides and fertilizer quantities was not correlated to the silage production volume. Overall the production systems and the quantity of silage produced and fed to the cows do not follow technical criteria; thus silage yield and use could be improved if following strategies to better allocate crop inputs.

Characterization of silage production and the use by dairy farmers in the West of Santa Catarina state