Effect of long-term application of animal slurries to grass on silage feeding quality for sheep
✍ Scribed by Anderson, Roy; Christie, Peter
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 174 KB
- Volume
- 78
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0022-5142
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✦ Synopsis
The e †ect of slurry type (pig or cow) and use of a bacterial silage inoculant, was assessed on herbage from long-term slurry plots ensiled in pilotscale (0É7 tonne) silos. Silage was fed to sheep to assess digestibility and metabolisable energy content. The latter was measured by direct calorimetry in a modiÐed cattle respiration chamber. Non-inoculated slurry-treated silages had poorer fermentation quality than inoculant-treated silages (P \ 0É001) and silages treated with cow slurry had poorer fermentation quality than those treated with pig slurry (P \ 0É001). Digestibility values for di †erent components of the silages showed few di †erences. Energy digestibility values of pig slurrytreated silages were lower (P \ 0É05) than for cow slurry-treated silages. Methane production from all animals in the experiment was comparatively low at 5É97È 6É74% of gross energy intake. Metabolisable energy contents of the cow slurrytreated silages were higher than pig slurry-treated silages (P \ 0É05) and the ME contents of inoculant treated silages were higher than of non-inoculated silages (P \ 0É001). Thus, treatment of slurry-treated silages with bacterial inoculant enhanced fermentation quality and ME contents. The e †ect of slurry type on fermentation quality and feeding value was ambiguous ; cow slurry-treated silages exhibiting poorer fermentation quality but higher ME contents than equivalent pig slurry-treated silages.
1998 Society of Chemical Industry.