Abstract
This study was carried out to examine the effects of different grass silage moisture levels and supplementation of rice grain on the fermentation quality and protein fraction of fermented total mixed ration (TMR). The TMR used as a basal diet was composed of corn silage, Italian ryegrass silage (IS), flaked corn, flaked barley, beet pulp, soybean meal and cottonseeds. Two preparations of IS were used : one with high (50.0%) moisture content and one with low (25.5%) moisture content. In addition, 54.5% of the flaked corn was replaced with flaked rice grain to examine the effects. Thus, 4 kinds of fermented TMR were prepared: high moisture and corn, high moisture and rice grain, low moisture and corn, and low moisture and rice grain. The V-Score of all four TMR preparation exceeded 80 points and fermentation quality was good in all of them. There were little variation in protein fraction in the TMRs over the 28-day period, and the protein content was not almost affected by either grass silage moisture level or the rice grain supplementation used. In conclusion, the fermentation pattern of TMR containing rice grain was similar to that of the TMR containing corn, and supplementation of rice grain exerted little influence on the protein fraction in the TMR. These results suggested that grain rice may be a good substitute for corn in fermented TMR.
