Milk Production Responses and Digestibility of Dairy Buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) Partially Supplemented with Forage Rape (Brassica napus) Silage Replacing Corn Silage

Abstract

Worldwide, silage is considered the main component in dairy animal diets; however, this portion is mainly dominated by corn silage, which raises availability challenges in some agricultural production systems. The present study evaluated a partial replacement of corn silage with forage rape silage (FRS) and its effect on feed intake, nutrient digestibility, rumen fermentation, milk production, and blood metabolites in buffalo. Thirty-six lactating buffaloes were randomly assigned to four different groups, according to supplementation of FRS (only corn silage, FRS0) or with 15% (FRS15), 25% (FRS25), and 35% (FRS35) of forage rape silage instead of corn silage. The results showed that, compared to corn silage, forage rape silage has a lower carbohydrate but a higher protein concentration. The buffalo intake of dry matter and organic matter were improved linearly with the FRS increasing in the diet. The apparent total-tract digestibility (ATTD) of dry matter, organic matter, nitrogen, neutral detergent fiber, and acid detergent fiber also increased by the FRS supplementation compared with FRS0. Conversely, FRS supplementation decreased the propionic, butyric, and valeric acid contents and increased the acetic:propionic ratio and microbial protein content. Furthermore, FRS inclusion led to a significantly higher milk urea and non-fat milk solid content, higher blood glucose, total globulins, blood urea nitrogen, and lower blood high-density lipoprotein. These results suggested that FRS has high a nutritional value and digestibility, is a good feed resource, and showed favorable effects when supplemented with dairy buffalo ration.

Evaluating the Effect of Forage Rape (Brassica napus) Ensiling Kinetics on Degradability and Milk Performance as Non-conventional Forage for Dairy Buffalo

“…One of the most valuable advantages of buffaloes is their increased ability to utilize unpalatable agricultural by-products, which can be further incorporated into rations because their coarser texture, odors, and flavors are ameliorated by ensiling ( 11 , 36 , 37 ). In this study, we included rape silage in the dairy buffalo diet; the difference in DMI was not significant in each group, which showed that the whole-plant rape silage did not reduce the diet's palatability.…”

“…Although previous works studied the effect of including forage rape silage in buffalo diets as a replacement for other silage sources ( 11 ) and did not discuss the dynamics during the ensiling process. Such changes during the ensiling process will alter the chemical analysis and, in turn, the feed properties, which will reflect animal performance.…”

Isolation and identification of ligninolytic bacterium (Bacillus cereus) from buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) rumen and its effects on the fermentation quality, nutrient composition, and bacterial community of rape silage

“…Rape silage is a kind of roughage with great development prospects that has a high metabolizable energy level (2.8–3.0 Mcal/kg DM) and a high crude protein level (160–200 g/kg DM) (Kaur et al, 2011 ; Barry, 2013 ). When the corn silage was partially replaced by rape silage, the apparent total-tract digestibility increased by 10.99% in dairy buffalo (Zhou et al, 2021 ).…”

Study on the Quality of Mixed Silage of Rapeseed with Alfalfa or Myriophyllum

“…A substantial amount of research has shown that the whole rapeseed plant is a worthwhile source of roughage. The whole plant is a forage resource worth developing [10], and its straw contains 5.24% crude protein (CP), which is higher than those of corn (Zea mays L.) straw (5%) and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) straw (3.6%) [11]. Current research on rapeseed is primarily focused on cultivation techniques and compositional analysis, with less research on the use of rape as fodder.…”