The replacement of corn silage by treated and untreated whole crop triticale

silage in diets of fattening male calves

Ali Reza Foroughi1, Mehdi koche-Loghmani2, Abdol Mansour Tahmasbi3 and Ali Reza Shahdadi4
1
Institute of Scientific-Applied Higher Education Jihad-e-Agriculture, High Education Center of Jihad Agriculture of Khorasan
Razavi, Department of Animal Science, P. O. Box: 9176994767, Mashhad, Iran, afroghi@yahoo.com,
2
Khorasan Animal Feed Cooperation, Mashhad, Iran
3
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Department of Animal Science, P. O. Box 917751163, Mashhad, Iran,
a.tahmasbi@lycos.com
4
Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Gorgan, Department of Animal Science, P. O. Box 4913815739,
Gorgan, Iran, a.shahdadi@yahoo.com

Keywords: Bacterial inoculants, molasses, performance, whole crop triticale silage

Introduction In Iran, there are many alternative types of forage which can be used in animal nutrition.
Corn silage is a major component of diets fed to dairy and beef cows because of the high energy yield,
relatively high palatability, the ease of mechanization and storage, the uniformly high feeding value, and
incorporating easily into total mixed rations (Cherney et al. 2004). However, on drought prone sandy
soils, and in years with insufficient rainfall the yield of maize is very low (Van Duinkerken et al. 1999).
In situations where water is a limiting factor for growing corn, triticale may be an alternative fodder crop
(Hill and Leaver 1999).
Triticale grows mainly during the early spring when there usually is a precipitation surplus and
water is not a limiting factor for growth. When triticale is harvested as whole crop silage the dry matter
(DM) yield ranges between 9000 and 11000 kg/ha. Therefore, under water limiting conditions it may
be attractive to replace corn silage by whole crop triticale silage (Van Duinkerken et al. 1999). There is
limited study about the effects of inoculants and molasses on fermentation and nutritive value of triticale
silage. Thus the aim of this study was to determine the effects of replacing corn silage (CS) with whole
crop triticale silage (WCTS) treated with bacterial inoculants and molasses on performance of fattening
male calves.

Material and methods Corn plants and whole crop triticale at milk stage (about 30% DM) were har-
vested, chopped (20 mm theoretical length of cut) and ensiled in trench silos, sealed with two layers of
plastic sheets and then allowed to ferment for 45 days. Thirty two (8 calves per treatment) Brown Swiss
male calves (mean initial live weight, 215±15.23 kg) were used in a complete randomized design for 100
days. Calves were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental diets: 1) CS, 2) WCTS without additive,
3) WCTS treated with molasses (50 g/kg DM) and 4) WCTS treated with bacterial inoculants (Ecosyl®,
applied at 1×105 cfu/g). Animals were kept in individual stalls and had free access to water. Diets were
formulated based on beef NRC (1996) requirements. The diets used in the present experiment included
(% from DM) experimental silage (30), barley grain (34), corn grain (12), cottonseed meal (3), canola
meal (3), wheat bran (4), beet sugar pulp (6), beet molasses (5.5), urea (0.5), calcium carbonate (0.5),
sodium bicarbonate (0.5), salt (0.3), di-calcium phosphate (0.2) and mineral-vitamin premix (0.5). Di-
ets were isocaleric (Metabolizable energy: 2.58 Mcal/kg DM) and isonitrogenous (crude protein (CP):
14.4%). Other chemical composition of diets were: neutral detergent fiber (NDF): 32.1%, acid detergent
fiber: 16.8%, ether extract: 2.6%, calsium: 0.71 and phosphorus: 0.56%. The total mixed rations were
consisted of 30% forage (silage) and 70% concentrate (DM basis). Calves were fed enough total mixed
rations in two separate feeding at 0700 and 1900 h to allow a daily refusal of approximately 50 g/kg
intake.
To determine the dry matter intake (DMI), the a.m. and p.m. feed offered was recorded and refusal
was collected and weighed daily. The calves were weighed every 3 weeks throughout the trial (After a
12 h fast by removing feed only) and amount of diet offered was adjusted based upon their live weights.
Then average daily weight gain (DWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were calculated. To deter-
mine nutrients apparent digestibility, feeds, refusals and feces of each calf were collected for 5 days
and sampled on days 96 to 100 of the fattening period. These samples were frozen at -20°C for future
analysis. In this trial, nutrients apparent digestibility was measured using fecal collection. Rumen liquid
samples were taken approximately 3h after morning feeding by stomach tube, then pH was determined
immediately. During the trial ruminating activity of calves for 24 h was measured by method of direct
observation every 5 minutes for 24 h.
Comparisons between the experimental diets were made using complete randomized design.
Weight at the start of the experimental period was used as a covariate in analysis of experimental period
performance. Statistical analysis was conducted using SAS 9.1 (SAS Institute 1989). Planned contrasts
included diet 1 vs. 2, 3 and 4, 1 vs. 2, 2 vs. 3, 2 vs. 4 and 3 vs. 4.

496 XVI International Silage Conference

Results and discussion There were no significant differences (P>0.05) in DMI, DWG or FCR among
treatments (Table 1). The lower DMI of WCTS can be related to high NDF content of this silage com-
pared with corn silage, digestibility, palatability, time spent chewing during eating and ruminating (Kho-
rasani et al. 1996). Rumen liquid pH and ruminating activity were significantly (P<0.05) affected by the
diets (Table 1). Rumen liquid pH was highest for calves fed WCTS treated with bacterial inoculants and
lowest for calves fed CS without additive (diets 1 vs. 2,3,4 and 1 vs. 2). This result can be due to the
larger particle size in diets containing CS compared with those containing CS. The effect of particle size
on rumen liquid pH in the present study contrasts with the commonly accepted principle that increasing
particle length promotes chewing activity, and thus increases buffering capacity within the rumen due
to increased saliva secretion. The experimental diets had significant effect (P<0.05) on nutrients digest-
ibility coefficients (Table 2). The addition of molasses to whole crop triticale at ensiling had significantly
higher nutrients digestibility than other diets (2 vs. 3 and 2 vs. 4). These findings are in agreement with
the observations of Carpintero et al. (1969) who reported that nutrients digestibilities of whole crop corn
silage treated with molasses were higher than the corn silage.

Table 1. Effects of experimental diets on performance, rumen pH and chewing activity of the calves.
Experimental diets† Contrasts (P-value)
Item SEM 1 vs. 2,
1 2 3 4 1 vs. 2 2 vs. 3 2 vs. 4 3 vs. 4
3, 4
DMI (kg/d) 9.00 8.50 8.49 8.56 0.829 0.689 0.729 0.970 0.942 0.916
DWG (kg) 1.33 1.24 1.22 1.19 0.091 0.229 0.388 0.963 0.651 0.696
FCR 7.13 6.77 6.70 7.24 0.284 0.322 0.259 0.988 0.334 0.346
Rumen pH 6.24 6.54 6.38 6.56 0.095 0.037 0.043 0.258 0.849 0.190
Ruminating
297 398 344 316 30.21 0.130 0.031 0.224 0.071 0.522
activity (min/d)
†
Experimental diets were: 1) CS, 2) WCTS without additive, 3) WCTS treated with molasses (50 g/kg DM) and 4)
WCTS treated with bacterial inoculants (Ecosyl®, applied at 1×105 cfu/g).

Table 2. Nutrients digestibility coefficients of the experimental diets.

Experimental diets† Contrasts (P-value)
Item SEM 1 vs. 2,
1 2 3 4 1 vs. 2 2 vs. 3 2 vs. 4 3 vs. 4
3, 4
DM 0.71 0.73 0.75 0.70 0.010 0.125 0.109 0.221 0.028 0.002
Organic matter 0.74 0.73 0.75 0.71 0.006 0.974 0.214 0.070 0.030 0.001
CP 0.69 0.68 0.71 0.65 0.008 0.325 0.601 0.034 0.005 <0.0001
NDF 0.45 0.42 0.46 0.40 0.005 0.001 0.001 0.000 0.011 <0.0001
†
Experimental diets were: 1) CS, 2) WCTS without additive, 3) WCTS treated with molasses (50 g/kg DM) and 4)
WCTS treated with bacterial inoculants (Ecosyl®, applied at 1×105 cfu/g).

Conclusions Replacement of corn silage with triticale silage had no significant differences on perfor-
mance of fattening male calves. Addition of molasses and microbial inoculants can improve nutrients
digestibility of triticale silage.

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