Nutritional and Logarithmic Fungal Count of Brewers’ Grain Under Different Conservation Techniques and Brewery Sources

Abstract This study was contained two trials. The objectives of the first and the second trials were to explore variations in nutritional merits and investigate the effect of local conservation practices on nutritional and fungal load dynamics of wet brewers’ grain (WBG) received from different brewery sources, respectively. Fresh WBG samples for the first trial were obtained from four breweries (Meta Abo, Habesha, Dashen and Bedele) located in different districts of the country. Brewers’ grain sample received from Meta Abo brewery factory had superiorly higher (p<0.05) acid detergent fiber, lignin and digestible organic matter in the dry matter (DOMD), but comparable dry matter (DM), total ash, crude protein (CP) and neutral detergent fiber with the other breweries. In the second trial, an attempt was made to evaluate three locally available WBG conservation practices, preservation of WBG using an ensiling technique maintained feed quality slightly comparable to the control sample (freeze dried ) but outperformed (p<0.05) other locally available conservational practices “soaking” and “sun drying “ with minimal loss on feed DM and other nutrients, lower total fungal, yeast and mold colony counts and above all superior CP digestion kinetics as measured through nylon bag degradability constants. If supply is not a constraint under local conditions, ensiling can fairly be recommended as a best bet WBG conservation practice for use at wider scale.