The effect of different moisture contents at ensiling on silo degradation and digestibility of structural carbohydrates of orchardgrass
Introduction
A lot of research on silage fermentation concerns the reduction of moisture content of forages at ensiling. This is because the wetter the material ensiled, the lower will be the critical pH value (Butler and Bailey, 1973, McDonald et al., 1991). Similarly, much research has focused on relating quality changes of ensiled material to its moisture content at ensiling (McDonald et al., 1991, Wayne et al., 1998) and at baling (Miller et al., 1967, Montgomery et al., 1986, Collins et al., 1987). However, little is known on the effect of moisture content on losses of structural carbohydrates during fermentation and on silage digestibility. McDonald and Whittenbury (1977) indicated that the bulk of the acid produced during ensiling originated from fermentation of water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC). Recent reports suggest that protein and structural carbohydrates can also be substrates for microorganisms during ensiling (McDonald et al., 1991, Yahaya et al., 2000). The success or failure of ensiling forage depends on inter-related factors, such as differences in moisture content at ensiling, forage species and growth stage at harvest, and period and length of ensiling of forage, which are not fully understood.
This study aimed to evaluate the extent of hemicellulose, cellulose and pectin losses as influenced by low (40%), medium (65%) and high (76%) moisture content of orchardgrass after 120 days of ensiling and its effect on silage digestibility.
Section snippets
Silage preparation
The orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) was harvested during the early flowering stage around June at the Obihiro University Farm, Japan. The grass was cut at a length of 2–3 cm using a mechanical forage cutter. The entire lot was thoroughly mixed and divided into three equal parts. About 65 kg fresh matter (76% moisture content) from the first part was ensiled in four plastic silos of 120 l capacity. The second and third part was wilted to moisture content of 65 and 40%, respectively. A quantity
Results and discussion
The chemical composition of the fresh orchardgrass and silages is shown in Table 1.
The hemicellulose, cellulose, pectin and gross energy tended to decrease with higher moisture content in the silage. Among silages, WSC content was higher (P<0.05) in LM compared to MM and HM silages, while EE content was higher (P<0.05) in HM compared to LM and MM silages.
Table 2 shows the fermentation quality of the three silages. While the pH content declined (P<0.05) with increased moisture content, the
Conclusion
These results indicated that the higher moisture content of orchardgrass at ensiling gave higher losses of gross energy, WSC and hemicellulose resulting in decreased digestibility and nutritive value of silage. However, wilting before ensiling may reduce these losses and improve digestibility.
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