Evaluation of the nutritive value of sugar cane tops and its silage at Wondogenet, Sidama, Ethiopia

The study was conducted at Wondogenet Agricultural Research Center to investigate the effect of urea and urea plus molasses treatment on nutritive value of sugarcane tops and its silage. The green sugarcane top that was purchased from the surrounding farmers during the harvesting time was chopped to the favorable size for silage and ensiled with or without 1% molasses, 4% urea and 4% urea + 1% molasses in plastic silos for 21 days. Results revealed that dry matter content of the silage varied between 30.13 % and 41.86%, protein content between 5.33% and 12.49%, ash content between 2.3% and 9.03%, NDF content between 64.84% and 73.1%, ADF content between 39.09% and 41.79%, pH between 4.15 and 4.47, Fleig score between 86.46 and 111.52, digestibility of dry matter between 56.3% and 58.4%, dry matter intake between 1.6% and 1.9%, relative feed value between 74.1 and 83.4, depending on the urea and urea plus molasses treated additives. Sugarcane top ensiled with urea-based additives showed better CP content than the treatments without additive and treated with molasses. Sugarcane top silage of the current study was of bad and/or unacceptable quality in terms of the NDF ratio and good and/or medium in terms of the ADF ratio according to the roughage quality standard for farm animals. In terms of the Fleig score, it was determined that the quality of the sugarcane top silage could be classified as “very good” (Fleig score >85) and the pH value of ≤ 4.53, was within the acceptable range in quality silage. Generally, adding urea and urea plus molasses additives improved nutritional value and utilization of sugarcane top silage.