Addition of wheat bran and/or rice straw on chemical composition and in vitro rumen fermentation characteristics of ensiled water hyacinth

This work was conducted to investigate the quality of water hyacinth (WH) silage prepared with or without wheat bran (WB) and/or rice straw (RS). The WH silages were prepared in experimental glass containers to create four treatments: 1. 100% (fresh basis) WH (control); 2. 90% (WH) + 10% WB (WB10); 3. 90% WH + 10% RS (RS10), and 4. 90% WH + 5% WB + 5% RS (WB5RS5). The WH silage alone was of poor qualitywith undesirable odour and colour. Addition of 10% WB increased the content of dry matter, crude protein and lactate, improved fermentation characteristics and lowered pH value, percentage of ammonia-N in total N and butyrate concentration of silage (P<0.05). Addition of 10% RS increased dry matter content, reduced proportion of ammonia-N of total N and pH value as well as crude protein concentration (P<0.05), but had little effect on lactate concentration as well as fermentation characteristics (P>0.05). Addition of 5% rice straw and 5% wheat bran resulted in intermediate quality silage. It may be concluded that ensiling of water hyacinth with 10% WB was an efficient way to improve the silage quality.