Study on Nutritive Value of Silage from Sweet Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench.)

Abstract

The study deals with the nutritive value silage from sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench.) used for husbandry. The production of silage in the following ways; 1)  fermented sweet sorghum, 2) fermented sweet sorghum with 5% rice bran 3) fermented sweet sorghum bagasse with 5% molasses and 4) fermented sweet sorghum bagasse with 5% molasses and 5% rice bran. The results showed that all four silage treatments had good physical properties. For chemical composition, the protein content of sweet sorghum silage mixed 5% rice bran was highest with an average of 9.98 %, followed by the protein contents of sweet sorghum silage, sweet sorghum bagasse silage and sweet sorghum bagasse silage mixed 5% rice with the average of 7.01, 4.30 and 4.92 %, respectively.  The NDF fiber contents of sweet sorghum silage and sweet sorghum bagasse silage mixed 5% rice bran were significantly higher than that of sweet sorghum bagasse silage and sweet silage mixed 5% rice bran, while ADF values of fermented sweet sorghum bagasse and fermented sweet sorghum bagasse were significantly higher than that of sweet sorghum bagasse silage and sweet sorghum bagasse silage mixed rice bran. However, nutritive values of sorghum bagasse were rather low but it can be used as a major feed ingredient.