Effect of locally available carbohydrate sources along with urea and cow dung on chemical composition and fermentation parameters of ensiled wheat straw

The objective of present study was to find out some suitable locally available carbohydrate source (CS) which could serve as an alternative of molasses for ensiling wheat straw (WS). Five mixtures were prepared by mixing wheat straw with molasses (MU), maize flour (MFU), wheat flour (WFU), rice flour (RFU) and jaggary (JU). The CS supplied the same amount of NFE as that obtained from 4 kg molasses per 100 kg WS. Urea was mixed @ 4% in all the treatment. Treatment U had no CS and treatment M had only molasses but no urea. Cow dung (CD) was mixed in these mixtures in the ratio of 30:70. The mixtures were ensiled for 40 days in laboratory silos in triplicate. After 40 days, samples were analyzed for DM loss, proximate principles, fibre constituents, fermentation parameters and organoleptic parameters. The treatments MFU, WFU, RFU and JU were compared with treatment MU. The treatment which appeared at rank 1 the maximum number of times, was ranked as 1 and the treatment which appeared at rank 1 the least number of times was placed at last rank. The ensiling caused an increase in the CP, decrease in DM, CF, NDF, ADF, cellulose and hemicellulose, no effect on EE and increase in total ash (TA) content. The pH ranged from 4.1 to 8.33; TVFA from 9.80 to 11.22 meq/g and ammonia nitrogen from 0.055 to 0.740%. Aerobic stability of MFU and MU treatments was the highest. Total score of JU, MFU, WFU and RFU were 8, 7, 4 and 2 points, respectively. It could be concluded that, either jaggary or maize flour can replace molasses for ensiling WS along with urea and CD for improving its nutritive value.