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The digestibility of grass silage by sows
Author(s) -
Whittemore Colin T.,
Henderson Annie R.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.2740280607
Subject(s) - silage , dry matter , cellulase , chemistry , agronomy , zoology , carbohydrate , cellulose , nitrogen , food science , biology , biochemistry , organic chemistry
Abstract Silage made from young grass and which contained an average of 34.6 g nitrogen (N), 19.5 MJ gross energy (GE) and 271 g fibre/kg dry matter (DM), was found to have digestibility coefficients to sows of 0.73 for N, 0.60 for GE, 0.60 for cellulose and 0.51 for fibre. The addition of a cellulase enzyme preparation to the grass prior to ensilage decreased the fibre content by 38 g/kg DM and increased the water soluble carbohydrate (WSC) content by 154 g/kg DM, but did not influence the digestibility of the silage.