Abstract
This study was conducted to determine the effect of fermentation quality of green soybean stover silage (GSS) for nutritive value and ruminal fluid condition on sheep fed only with GSS. Chopped green soybean stover was ensiled into container box silos without (N-GSS) or with 4 %w/w syrup waste (T-GSS) and these were stored for 7 months. Crashed alfalfa hay cube (ALF) was used as control. Six sheep were used for 3×3 Latin square design in a digestibility experiment. Ruminal fluid was taken on the last day of each period. Lactic acid and butyric acid content of N-GSS was 1.19 % and 0.78 % for fresh matter basis, respectively. Meanwhile, for T-GSS the content was 1.96% and 0.06% for fresh matter basis, respectively. Digestible crude protein content of T-GSS was higher than N-GSS and similarly for ALF. Total digestible nutrient of T-GSS was higher than that of GSS and ALF. Nitrogen balance was not affected among feeds. Ruminal pH of sheep fed N-GSS and T-GSS remained relatively higher than ALF. Ruminal volatile fatty acid concentration and NH3 concentration were not affected among feeds. We verified that fermentation quality of GSS could be improved using syrup waste and its nutritive value was higher in comparison to N-GSS and also similar to ALF.
