FEED INVENTORY AND IMPROVEMENT OF LOW-QUALITY FORAGE BY ENSILING WITH WET DISTILLERS GRAIN IN TIYO DISTRICT, ETHIOPIA
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2019-06
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Abstract
A study was conducted in Tiyo district of the Arsi Zone of Oromia Regional State, with the objectives of identify the sources of feeds, supply, estimate annual feed produced, maintenance requirement, and improvement of low quality forage by ensiling with wet distiler grain. A total of 120 households (HHs) were farming system randomly selected from three Kebeles (40 HHs from each kebeles) and interviewed. Types of available feed resources in the study areas include crop residues, natural pastures, hay, and agro industrial by product. According to the estimation of this study, there was an annual total annual requirement was 1973 ton DM but available feed is 1010.3ton thus, the annual feed supply on year basis is estimate to satisfy 51.1% of the maintenance requirement of livestock in the study area this implies that there is livestock feed deficit or shortage in the study area which suggest that the primary focus needs to be improving the existing feed resources through utilization, applying improvement practices such as treatment of crop residues, by ensiling with wet distiler grain in case of improve its composition and nutritive value. Trials were conducted to evaluate the effects of ensiling wheat straw with WDGS and fababean straw with WDGS and alone on its preservation and nutritive value. In the study, WDGS was blended with fababean straw and wheat straw at 0% (control), 10%, 20%, and 40%, and ensiled for 42 days in bottle silos in a factorial design. Fermentation was monitored by taking samples at day 0, 7, 14, 21 and 42. Results showed the lowest pH value (4.65) was obtained from ensiled solvent extract with 20% WDGS opened on 42nd day. There was an increase in crude protein content of silage ensiled from faba bean straw (11.094 to 25.228) treated with WDGS. From those faba bean straw treated, the lowest ash content (8.13 and 8.356) was recorded with that of WDGS free silage opened on the first and 21st days respectively. The highest organic matter content (91.575%) of the silage prepared from wheat was found with 20% concentration of WDGS ensiled for 21 days. Faba bean silage with 40% of WDGS ensiled for 21days produced the lowest crude fiber (29.53%). There were no significant main effect and interaction effects of different concentration levels of WDGS at different sampling period on dry matter content of the ensiled wheat and faba bean residues.
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ensiling, wet distiler grain, crop residue