Agronomic characteristics and silage productivity of corn and millet fertilized with swine biofertilizer under irrigation.

The use of biofertilizers in agriculture is a promising alternative to mineral fertilizers and as a destination of manure. The objective of this study was to evaluate the morphological characteristics, biomass production and leaf nutrient content of irrigated corn and millet fertilized with swine biofertilizer. Two experiments were conducted between June and September 2011 using corn and millet grown on a Red-Yellow Latosol in a randomized block design consisting of six treatments and four repetitions: swine biofertilizer doses to provide 0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 kg/ ha P2O5 and one additional treatment using NPK 4-14-8 mineral fertilizer. Each dose of phosphorus provided by the swine biofertilizer was compared by the Dunnett test to the additional treatment with mineral fertilizer and significance was defined when P<0.05. Regression equations were fitted for the phosphorus doses provided by the swine biofertilizer. The biomass production of the corn and millet plants responded linearly to increasing doses of the swine biofertilizer. At the dose that provided the application of 150 kg/ha P2O5, silage production and leaf nutrient content of corn and millet were similar to those obtained with the mineral fertilizer.