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Conference paper2020Peer reviewed

Effect of mechanical processing of ley crop silages on in vitro gas production and neural digestive fibre digestion

Elgemark, Emma; Eriksson, Torsten; Rustas, Bengt-Ove

Abstract

Reducing silage particle size can increase forage intake through enhanced rumen passage rate. Increased passage rate might depress rumen digestion and counteract the positive effect of intake on nutrient supply. Extrusion is a mechanical treatment causing particle size reduction and plant cells to break open, resulting in improved fermentation in biogas reactors. The objective of this study was to investigate if extrusion could increase in vitro ruminal digestion of silage. Primary growth of timothy and red clover silage, harvested at two maturity stages, was processed in an extruder. In vitro incubations with rumen liquid were performed over 72 h in a system with continuous measurement of gas production. Analysis of neutral detergent fibre (NDF) digestion was performed on fermented residues. Extrusion increased gas production from both timothy and clover, indicating improved digestion, and enhanced NDF degradation of late harvest timothy and early harvest red clover silage. Extrusion has the potential to increase rumen digestion of ley crop silage.

Keywords

forage; in vitro digestion; particle size reduction; extrusion

Published in

Grassland Science in Europe
2020, number: 25, pages: 632-634
Title: Meeting the future demands for grassland production : Proceedings of the 28th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation Helsinki, Finland 19-22 October 2020
ISBN: 978-952-326-944-6, eISBN: 978-952-326-945-3
Publisher: Wageningen Academic Publishers

Conference

Proceedings of the 28th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation Helsinki, Finland, 19-22 October 2020, pp. 632-634.