In Vitro and in Vivo Evaluation of Sugar Beet Pulp as Feed for Ruminants and Its Preservation as Silage

Present study was conducted to evaluate oats silage (OS) and sugar beet pulp (SBP) in vitro and in vivo and also to explore the feasibility of ensiling sugar beet pulp with wheat straw or acidic additive in vitro. Silages were prepared by standard methodology using bunker silos at four dairy farms. The treatments included only SBP (SBP), SBP+5% wheat straw (SBP-WS), SBP+5% wheat straw + 0.5% acidic additive (SBP-WS-A) and SBP+0.5% acidic additive (SBP-A). The values of CP, OM, net gas production (NGP), metabolisable energy, OM digestibility, NDF digestibility and true DM digestibility (TDMD) were higher (P<0.05) whereas those of total ash, NDF, ADF, EE, microbial mass production (MMP), efficiency of microbial mass production (EMMP) were lower in SBP as compared to OS. The sugar beet pulp silage without any additive (SBP) had highest acetic, isobutyric, isovaleric, total VFA and NH₃-N. The lactic acid content was highest (P<0.05) and NH₃-N lowest in SBP-WS silage which resulted in lowest pH. The in vitro gas production of silages showed similar NGP, ME, partition factor, MMP, EMMP and gas production kinetics of DM and NDF in the different treatments of SBP silages but OM digestibilty and NDF digestibilty were highest in SBP-WS-A silage whereas TDMD was best in SBP and SBP-A silages. Twelve adult male buffaloes were divided into two groups and fed either 20 kg OS or SBP in addition to 1 kg wheat straw, 50 g mineral mixture and 30 g common salt daily. The digestibility coefficients of DM, OM, NDF, ADF and CP were significantly (P<0.01) higher in SBP as compared to OS based diets in buffaloes. It was concluded that sugar beet pulp is a high energy ruminant feed with better in vitro and in vivo digestibility of nutrients in buffaloes as compared to oats silage. The in vitro study indicated that sugar beet pulp could be ensiled successfully with wheat straw @ 5% or 5% wheat straw + 0.5% acidic additive.