Improvement of Nutritive Value and &lt;i&gt;In vitro&lt;/i&gt; Ruminal Fermentation of &lt;i&gt;Leucaena&lt;/i&gt; Silage by Molasses and Urea Supplementation

K Phesatcha,M Wanapat

doi:10.5713/ajas.15.0591

Abstract

Leucaena silage was supplemented with different levels of molasses and urea to study its nutritive value and in vitro rumen fermentation efficiency. The ensiling study was randomly assigned according to a 3×3 factorial arrangement in which the first factor was molasses (M) supplement at 0%, 1%, and 2% of crop dry matter (DM) and the second was urea (U) supplement as 0%, 0.5%, and 1% of the crop DM, respectively. After 28 days of ensiling, the silage samples were collected and analyzed for chemical composition. All the nine Leucaena silages were kept for study of rumen fermentation efficiency using in vitro gas production techniques. The present result shows that supplementation of U or M did not affect DM, organic matter, neutral detergent fiber, and acid detergent fiber content in the silage. However, increasing level of U supplementation increased crude protein content while M level did not show any effect. Moreover, the combination of U and M supplement decreased the content of mimosine concentration especially with M2U1 (molasses 2% and urea 1%) silage. The result of the in vitro study shows that gas production kinetics, cumulation gas at 96 h and in vitro true digestibility increased with the increasing level of U and M supplementation especially in the combination treatments. Supplementation of M and U resulted in increasing propionic acid and total volatile fatty acid whereas, acetic acid, butyric acid concentrations and methane production were not changed. In addition, increasing U level supplementation increased NH3-N concentration. Result from real-time polymerase chain reaction revealed a significant effect on total bacteria, whereas F. succinogenes and R. flavefaciens population while R. albus was not affected by the M and U supplementation. Based on this study, it could be concluded that M and urea U supplementation could improve the nutritive value of Leucaena silage and enhance in vitro rumen fermentation efficiency. This study also suggested that the combination use of M and U supplementation level was at 2% and 1%, respectively.

Highlights

Tropical legume forages are a rich source of crude protein (CP) and minerals for animal nutrition, in addition to their contribution to a sustainable agro ecosystem (Bansi et al, 2014)
After 28 days of ensiling, 200 g of Leucaena silage were sampled for analysis of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM) and CP (AOAC, 1990), and acid detergent fiber and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) (Van Soest et al, 1991)
Increasing U supplementation level conditions as described previously, the purified DNA were increased the CP content of the silage and this was similar quantified by spectrophotometry with multiple dilutions. to the finding of Wanapat et al (2013) who investigated

Summary

Introduction

Tropical legume forages are a rich source of crude protein (CP) and minerals for animal nutrition, in addition to their contribution to a sustainable agro ecosystem (Bansi et al, 2014). The identification of alternative sources of dietary protein for ruminants is driven by the desire to reduce feeding cost and to ensure profitability and sustainability of livestock production systems. Ensiling is a method for preserving moist crops which ensures animal feed availability throughout the year. Silage processing is based on lactic acid fermentation under anaerobiosis and Submitted Jul. 11, 2015; Revised Aug. 29, 2015; Accepted Oct. 6, 2015 preserves the nutritive and sanitary qualities of the crops (Cazzato et al, 2011). High silage quality is a key factor in minimizing the cost of production and sustaining animal health. Feed ingredients and chemical composition of concentrate, aim of ensiling is to preserve fodder under anaerobic rice straw, and Leucaena leaf condition, where anaerobic microbes build up organic acids, mainly lactic acid, by using fermentable carbohydrates, and Concentrate Rice straw

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Conclusion