• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.1125-1129
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• 2005

A study was conducted to determine the effect of feeding sugar cane silage compared to chopped whole sugar cane or grass silage on performances of lactating dairy cows during the dry season. Twenty four Holstein Friesian crossbred (>87.5% Holstein Friesian) lactating dairy cows in mid lactation; averaging 15.4${\pm}$3.2 kg of milk, 120${\pm}$23 days in milk, 50.5${\pm}$6.5 months old and 432${\pm}$39 kg live weight, were stratified for milk yield, days in milk, age, stage of lactation and body weight, and then randomly allocated to three treatment groups (8 cows in each group). All cows were fed 7.5 kg/d commercial concentrate plus ad libitum roughage according to treatment groups, which were grass silage, sugar cane silage or chopped whole sugar cane respectively. All cows consumed similar DM and produced similar milk and milk composition yields. However, cows on grass silage lost more weight than the other cows. The present study indicated that, during the dry season, sugar cane silage can be fed to lactating dairy cows, while giving similar milk yield to grass silage or chopped whole sugar cane.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.345-349
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• 2005

A study was conducted to determine the effect of feeding chopped whole sugar cane compared to corn silage on performances of dairy cows during the dry season. Twenty four Holstein Friesian crossbred (>87.5% Holstein Friesian) lactating dairy cows in mid lactation; averaging 16.5${\pm}$2.0 kg of milk, 121${\pm}$22 days in milk, 54.5${\pm}$4.5 months old and 440${\pm}$31 kg live weight, were stratified for milk yield, days in milk, age, stage of lactation and body weight, and then randomly allocated to two treatment groups (12 cows in each group). The first group was fed corn silage together with commercial concentrate while the second group was fed chopped whole sugar cane together with commercial concentrate. All cows consumed similar DM, however, cows on corn silage consumed more CP while cows on chopped whole sugar cane consumed more $NE_{LP}$. No significant differences in performances between the two groups were observed except for final live weight and body weight change. Cows on chopped whole sugar cane showed higher final live weight and gained more weight than cows on corn silage. The present study clearly indicates that chopped whole sugar cane can be fed to lactating dairy cows, while giving similar milk yield to corn silage.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.497-503
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• 2004

The effect of adding carbohydrate-rich feedstuffs to sweet potato leaves (SPL) on silage quality was studied using a total of 180 laboratory silos. Silage quality was assessed by changes of pH, dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP) and ammonia nitrogen ($NH_{3}$-N). Pre-wilted SPL was mixed with cassava root meal (CRM), sweet potato root meal (SPM) or sugar cane molasses (Mo) at levels of 0, 30, 60 and 90 g $kg^{-1}$ (air-dry weight of additives to pre-wilted weight of SPL). Samples for assessing silage quality were collected after mixing the SPL with the additive and thereafter at 7, 14, 28 and 56 days of ensiling. There was a marked decrease in pH after 7 days and the pH remained low and stable until day 56. Addition of 60 and 90 g $kg^{-1}$ resulted in a lower pH (p<0.05) than the other treatments. The DM content of the silage increased (p<0.05) with increasing levels of additive, while there were no differences in DM with time of ensiling. The CP content of the silage decreased (p<0.05) with increasing levels of additive. The CP content did not change up to 28 days, but was lower (p<0.05) after 56 days in all treatments. The $NH_{3}$-N levels were increasing (p<0.05) with time of ensiling, and were lower (p<0.05) with additive levels of 60 g $kg^{-1}$ or higher. Also, the additive source affected the $NH_{3}$-N values, with the lowest values found for Mo. Castrated male pigs (Large White$\times$Mongcai) were used in 4$\times$4 Latin square design to study the total tract digestibility and nitrogen (N) utilisation of diets with inclusion of ensiled SPL. The diets were based on cassava root meal with inclusion of protein from either fish meal (C) or SPL ensiled with CRM (D1), SPL ensiled with SPM (D2) and SPL ensiled with Mo (D3). The digestibility of DM, organic matter (OM) and CP were higher (p<0.05), and the digestibility of crude fibre (CF) was lower (p<0.05), in diet C than in diets D1, D2 and D3. However, there were no differences (p>0.05) in digestibility of dietary components between diets D1, D2 and D3. Also, the excretion of N in faeces was higher (p<0.05) and the N retention was lower (p<0.05) in diets D1, D2 and D3 than in diet C. It can be concluded from the present experiments, that a good quality silage can be produced from pre-wilted SPL by addition of 60 g $kg^{-1}$ of either CRM, SPM or Mo. Diets with inclusion of 450 g ensiled SPL $kg^{-1}$ DM showed a high digestibility of dietary components and thus ensiled SPL should be considered as a potential feed resource for growing pigs.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.639-646
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• 2007

To evaluate the effect of fiber sources on chewing activity, five sheep were consecutively fed diets containing 45% of a fiber source selected from 7 tested fiber sources of alfalfa hay cube(AHC), corn cob (CC), corn silage(CS), cotton seed hull(CSH), peanut hull(PHL), rice straw(RS) and sugarcane bagasse (SCB). Number of chew showed significantly higher value in CC(p<0.001) then other sources. RS and CC had highest(p<0.01) rumination times of 352 and 367 min/d, respectively. CC also showed the highest number of chew per kg NDF intake(p<0.01), but rumination time per kg NDF intake showed no difference except CSH(p<0.001). These results suggest that chewing activities were greatly affected by the fiber sources, and therefore it should be accounted in the formulation for ruminant feed.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.177-184
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• 2005

This study was conducted to study the effect of fiber sources on ruminal pH and buffering capacity and whole digestive tract digestibility with five ruminally fistulated sheep. Evaluated fiber sources were alfalfa hay cube (AHC), corn cob (CC), com silage (CS), cotton seed hull (CSH), peanut hull (PHL), rice straw (RS), and sugarcane bagasse (SCB). Sheep were fed consecutively a diet containing each tested fiber source $(45\%)$ with a corn-based concentrate diets $(55\%)$ during each experimental period. Ruminal pH showed no difference among fiber sources except the significantly lower pH at 8h (p<0.05) with RS (pH; 5.78) than those in other sources. Buffering capacity showed significant differences at 0h (p<0.05) and 2h (p<0.05) after feeding in CS compared to those from SCB and CC, while there was higher in PHL (p<0.01) at 12h post feeding except AHC than CC, CS, SCB, and RS. Dry matter digestibility was significantly higher in CS (p<0.001) than in other sources. Neutral detergent fiber digestibility was higher in CC, CS, CSH, and RS than other fiber sources (p<0.001). These results suggest that ruminal pH and buffering capacity and whole digestive track digestibility were significantly affected by fiber sources in ruminant diet, and, therefore, should be took those effects into account for TMR formulation.