The elephant grass was collected in Nova Petrópolis, RS, Brazil (29 210 39.1800 S and 51 020 53.8800 W, 619-m above sea level) and ground in a 70 Trapp forage chopper to obtain a particle size range between 0.075 and 4.75 mm. The samples were then dried at 60 C for three days and stored at ambient temperature for fur- ther use (Menegol et al., 2014b).