Effects of Guinea grass silage prepared with lactic acid bacteria and fibrolytic enzyme on feed intake, digestibility, and nitrogen balance in post-weaning Thai native beef cattle

บทคัดย่อ

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of purple Guinea grass silage prepared with lactic acid bacteria and fibrolytic enzyme on feed intake, digestibility, and nitrogen balance in post-weaning Thai native beef cattle. A 4×4 Latin square design was conducted using 4 heads of post-weaning Thai native beef cattle (average body weight = 53.20±3 kg, and age = 6 months old), 4 treatments of purple Guinea grass silage prepared with and without (control), Lactobacillus casei TH14 (TH14), Acremonium cellulase (AC), and TH14+AC, and 4 periods (adaptation = 14 days, and collection = 7 days). In each period, cattle were fed silage ad libitum. The concentrate supplemented at 1.0 % body weight, and diets were fed at 09:00 and 17:00. The feaces and urine samples were obtained using a total collection technique. As a result, the silage treated with TH14 did not promote nutrient digestibility and nitrogen utilization (P>0.05). Compared with the control, in all treatments did not alter the chemical compositions of silage and feed intake (P>0.05). On the other hand, addition the TH14, AC, and TH14+AC improved the quality of purple Guinea grass silage by increasing lactic acid concentration (P<0.01) and ammonia nitrogen concentration (P<0.05). AC-treated silage showed a significant improvement in nutrient digestibility (P<0.05), while there was no significant effect on nitrogen utilization (P>0.05) in Thai native beef cattle. Therefore, the results of this study suggested that AC has greater potential as a silage additive for purple Guinea grass.