EFFECT OF ENSILING ELEPHANT GRASS WITH MOLASSES ON THE NUTRITIVE VALUE AND IN-VITRO DIGESTIBILITY

Ensiling is the process of preserving a forage crop and its nutrients to be fed later on as silage. In this study, elephant grass was ensiled with varying levels of molasses as additive to evaluate its effect on the nutritive value and in-vitro digestibility of the silage. Four treatments of Pennisetum purpureum grass silage were produced with molasses at 0 (T1), 2.5 (T2), 5 (T3) and 7.5% (T4) inclusion levels. Silages containing inclusions of molasses (T2, T3 and T4) had higher contents of dry matter (71.4- 73.10%), crude protein (10.15-12.15%) and nitrogen-free extract (21.05-23.43) than T1. All the fibre fractions such as acid detergent fibre, neutral detergent fibre, acid detergent lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose contents were lower in silage containing molasses as additive (T2, T3 and T4). At 6 and 15 hours incubation, there were no significant differences (p>0.05) in the in-vitro gas production. However, gas production was significantly higher (p<0.05) in silages with inclusion of molasses additives (T2, T3 and T4) at 9 (23.33-28.00), 12 (28.00-34.00), 18 (30.33-38.00), 21 (33.00-38.67) and 24 (34.00-40.33) hours of incubation. Conspicuously, silages containing graded levels of molasses as additive had significantly higher (p<0.05) methane gas, carbon dioxide, gas volumes, in-vitro digestibility, metabolisable energy and organic matter digestibility than the control silage. It could be concluded that inclusion of graded levels of molasses as additives in elephant grass silage led to higher nutrient contents, increased in-vitro gas production as well in-vitro dry matter digestibility and reduced fibre fraction of silage.