Abstract
This study determined the effects of wheat stage, preservation treatment, and harvest time on the fermentation characteristics, methane production, and bacterial diversity. In this study, processing wheat into hay can reduce methane production. The MWS7 (wheat harvested at 7:00 in milk stage and preserved as silage) group had a significantly lower CO2 compared with the DWS15 (wheat harvested at 15:00 in dough stage and preserved as silage) group. Neutral detergent fiber degradation in the hay treatment harvesting at 7:00 was significantly higher than that in other treatments. The butyrate proportion in the DWH7 (wheat harvested at 7:00 in dough stage and preserved as hay) group was higher than that in the MWS7 group. Results from high-throughput sequencing showed that there were differences in the relative abundance of some minor rumen microbiota among the treatments. The MWS7 group had greater microbial diversity and the MWH7 group (wheat harvested at 7:00 in milk stage and preserved as hay) had higher species richness. In addition, the MWH7 group had a lower Methanobrevibacter abundance and methane production. Overall, the MWH7 group may have advantages of rumen fermentation and reduce methane production.
Highlights
IntroductionWheat straw is the second largest biomass feedstock in the world, most of it has not been properly used and even been burned for a long time [1]
Among the agricultural residues, wheat straw is the second largest biomass feedstock in the world, most of it has not been properly used and even been burned for a long time [1]
Several studies have shown that fermented whole-crop wheat can increase dry matter intake and improve rumen fermentation such as rumen concentration of ammonium nitrogen NH3 -N, total volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentration, and the efficiency of microbial N synthesis [4,5]
Summary
Wheat straw is the second largest biomass feedstock in the world, most of it has not been properly used and even been burned for a long time [1]. The burning of wheat straw leads to large amounts of resource waste and severe environment pollution including carbon dioxide (CO2 ), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4 ), N2 O, and fine particulate matter (PM2.5 ) [2]. Sci. 2020, 10, 8456 cost sometimes, have resulted in the increased use of this crop as feed for ruminants [3]. The whole-crop wheat, which consists of wheat straw and wheat grain, must be more nutritious than wheat straw for ruminants. Several studies have shown that fermented whole-crop wheat can increase dry matter intake and improve rumen fermentation such as rumen concentration of ammonium nitrogen NH3 -N, total volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentration, and the efficiency of microbial N synthesis [4,5]. There is little published information about the comparative analysis of wheat hay and wheat silage in fermentation characteristic using in vitro rumen cultures
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