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Background: Brewer's grains, a by-product of the brewery industry, can be included in the diet of ruminants. However, its high humidity makes it difficult to store and preserve. Objective: To evaluate the efficiency of sun dehydration of wet brewer’s grains (WBG) and the effect of storage period on its nutritional and microbiological quality. Methods: A completely randomized experimental design was used to evaluate WBG dehydration efficiency, with treatments corresponding to 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 hours of sun exposure. A second experiment was carried out using also a completely randomized design to evaluated the effect of storage with the following treatments: 0, 10, 20, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 days of storage of the dry by-product. Results: Dry matter (DM) content linearly increased with dehydration period. The chemical composition of the dried brewer's grains had no effect as a function of storage period. Indigestible protein (C fraction) increased linearly but did not compromise the cumulative gas production and the in vitro digestibility of DM and protein. Storage time had no effect on fungus population. The maximum aflatoxin value was 45.5 μg/kg, and remained within acceptable limits for bovine feed. Conclusion: Dehydration of WBG in the sun is efficient to guarantee conservation and makes it possible to store the byproduct. The storage of the dry by-product for 180 days does not compromise its nutritional or microbiological quality [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this work was to evaluate the growth of yellow passion fruit seedlings in response to increasing simple superphosphate levels. The experiment was carried out under greenhouse conditions in the campus of the West Parana State University - UNIOESTE, at the municipality of Marechal Cândido Rondon. A completely randomized design was used with five replications and five treatments, composed by the following simple superphosphate levels: 0; 0.28; 0.56; 1.11 and 2.78 kg m-3. At each 7-days interval, until 52 days after plant emergency, measurements of plant height, number of leaves, stem diameter, leaf area and shoot and root dry matter accumulation were performed. The application of simple superphosphate promoted linear increase in all evaluated variables. The results showed that there was a significant response of the specie to the application of simple superphosphate in the early period of development. The parameters of growth analysis showed the effect of simple superphosphate on the leaf area and dry matter accumulation in different parts of the plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]