Impacts of citrus pulp addition and wilting on elephant grass silage quality

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The objective of this work was to evaluate the use of citrus pulp addition and wilting on fermentative characteristics, chemical composition as well as gas and effluent losses of elephant grass silage. The elephant grass (70 growth days) was collected manually; one portion was immediately chopped and another one was allowed to wilt in the sun for a period of 6 h and subsequently chopped for the production of silage. Experimental PVC silos (10 cm diameter x 30 cm height) were used and sand bags were placed at the bottom of the silos. Citrus pulp (80 g kg -1 of MN) was added at the beginning of ensilage. The ensiled material was manually compressed to provide a specific mass of approximately 600 kg m -3 of silage. After 60 days, the silos were opened; gas and effluent losses were calculated and we determined pH, dry matter (DM), crude protein(CP), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), lignin, ammonia nitrogen, ash and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD). We added 0 or 80 g kg -1 of citrus pulp to wilted and un-wilted elephant grass. We used a completely randomised design with a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement (wilted or un-wilted) x (with or without citrus pulp), totalling treatments with five repetitions. Average values were compared using the F test with a probability of 5%. The addition of citrus pulp resulted in reduced levels of NDF, lignin, ash, N-NH 3 and pH and in increased values of DM and IVDMD of silages. Wilting increased the DM, NDF and lignin values and reduced the concentrations of CP, IVDMD and N-NH 3 . Based on our results, citrus pulp addition improves the chemical composition of elephant grass silage and increases its in vitro dry matter digestibility.

Performance of finishing beef cattle fed diets containing maize silages inoculated with lactic-acid bacteria and Bacillus subtilis

“…Apesar do aumento na concentração de carboidratos não fibrosos com inclusão de resíduo da indústria de panificação na ensilagem, tal incremento não favoreceu a queda do pH das silagens. O pH é o indicativo de que a silagem passou por processo de fermentação adequada, alguns autores preconizam a faixa de pH de 3,8 a 4,2 como sendo indicativo de boa fermentação para silagens de capins tropicais (RABELO et al, 2016;GOMES et al, 2015). Os valores de pH encontrados (Tabela 4) sugerem que o incremento de fontes de carboidratos presentes no resíduo de panificação seja maior parte de fontes de amido contribuindo apenas para o ajuste de MS e não como fonte de carboidratos solúveis não permitindo o declínio do pH.…”

“…A menor produção de efluentes nas silagens de capim-elefante com 70 dias com maiores concentrações de resíduo da indústria de panificação é devido ao fato de que o resíduo de panificação tem alto teor de MS (71,7%), o que permitiu a absorção do excesso de umidade do capim, resultando em menor umidade no conteúdo da massa ensilada. O aumento de perdas por efluentes acarreta em aumento de perdas de nutrientes por lixiviação, resultando em perdas no valor nutritivo da silagem (GOMES et al, 2015). Apesar de não significativo as idades maiores (84 e 98 dias) do capim-elefante também se comportaram de forma semelhante diminuindo as perdas por efluentes com o aumento do teor de resíduo de panificação.…”

Effect of microbial inoculant on the fermentation profile, nutritional value and microbial population on corn, sorghum, and pearl millet silages

“…The NH 3 -N levels were affected by the inoculant (0.0040) and differed between crops (P = 0.0095) (Table 3). According to Gomes et al (2017), NH 3 -N values below 10 g/kg CP in silage indicate good fermentation, and those above 15 g/kg CP indicate a significant amount of proteolysis.…”

Effect of using inoculant on elephant grass silage with additives

“…Dry matter (DMT), organic matter (OMT), ash (ASH), crude protein (CPT), fats (FTS), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and acid detergent fiber (ADF) of silage of elephant grass, wet brewery waste and buriti meal using or not inoculant at different silo opening times (SOP). And regardless of the use or not of inoculants, ensiling process provides more favorable fermentation conditions to fiber degradation, especially by stimulus to the activity of cellulolytic bacteria (Tavares et al, 2009;Gomes et al, 2017). It is expected in good quality silage that the homofermentative lactic bacteria become dominant as quickly as possible and promote -because of low pH and reduced oxi-reduction potentialinhibition of enterobacteria and bacteria of the genera Listeria, Bacillus, Clostridium and the heterofermentative lactic bacteria.…”