Effects Of Adding Brewer's Grains On Fermentation Quality Of Mixted Ensilage With Crop Straw And By-Products

The study was carried out to evaluate the effects of adding brewer's grains on fermentation quality of mixed ensilage with crop straw and by-products. The silos were opened on 30 days of ensiling, separately. Three silos are used for each treatment. There were four experiments were carried out in this study.ExperimentⅠ. Effect of adding brewer's grains on fermentation quality of mixed ensilage with corn stalk, sweet potato vine and apple residue.Corn straw, sweet potato vine and apple residue were mixed in the ratio of 5:3:2 and ensiled in laboratory silos. The control showed poor fermentation quality, having high pH (4.79), and low lactic acid content. The adding brewer's grains increased lactic acid content, and decreased significantly (p<0.05) pH, but increased consumption of WSC as compared with control. This might be result from the rotten brewer's grains which had the low content of ethanol and the high numbers of undesirable bacteria. Therefore, adding fresh brewer's grains might have a much more efficiency on improving fermentation quality for the mixed ensilage prepared from this type of materials.ExperimentⅡ. Effect of adding brewer's grains on fermentation quality of mixed ensilage with corn stalk, orange peel and apple residue.Corn stalk, orange peel and apple residue were mixed by the ratio of 5:3:2 and ensiled in laboratory silos. The control showed good fermentation quality, having low pH (3.53), All of silage had well fermentation quality, and this could be that orange peel was rich in the water-soluble carbohydrate, which resulted in excellent fermentation quality. However, adding brewer's grains did not further improve the fermentation quality. Therefore, for the mixed ensilage prepared from this type of materials, adding brewer's grains mainly aimed to take full advantage of their nutritional value. ExperimentⅢ. Effect of adding brewer's grains on fermentation quality of mixed ensilage with rice straw, sweet potato vine, apple residue and alfalfa.Rice straw, sweet potato vine, apple residue and alfalfa were mixed by the ratio of 5:2: 2:1 and ensiled in laboratory silos. The control showed poor fermentation quality, with high pH (4.74), and low lactic acid content. Adding brewer's grains significantly (p<0.05) decreased pH and improved the fermentation quality, moreover, the adding 20% brewer's grains significantly (p<0.05) decreased NH3-N content and increased contents of lactic acid and dry matter, with no increase in consumption of WSC. Therefore, for the mixed ensilage prepared from this type of materials, adding brewer's grains had an important role in improving fermentation quality.ExperimentⅣEffect of adding brewer's grains on fermentation quality of compounded ensilage with rice straw, orange peel, apple residue and alfalfa.Rice straw, orange peel, apple residue and alfalfa were mixed by the ratio of 5:2:2:1, and ensiled in laboratory silos. All of silage had well fermentation quality, with a pH below 3.7, however, adding brewer's grains could not improve the fermentation quality. This could be that orange peel had rich in the water-soluble carbohydrate, which resulted in excellent fermentation quality. Therefore, adding brewer's grains did not play a role in improving fermentation quality, but may improve the nutritional value of mixed silage.