Silage from Agricultural By-products in Thailand: Processing and Storage

Processing and storage of the silage from agricultural by-products were studied in two experiments. The first experiment was conducted to investigate the chemical composition and degradability of various silages with varying ensiling times. The experiment was a 5$\times$3 factorial design, completely randomized, with factor A as the different formulated mixtures by varying level of urea addition (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0%) and factor B as the time of ensiling. Chemical composition changed little with time and varied only slightly with levels of urea in the mixtures. Dry matter (DM) degradability increased with increasing cassava levels while crude protein degradability and pH level increased with increasing urea addition. By using 'Flieg point', which relates to organic acid yields, there were no significant difference among ensiled mixtures and times of ensiling. Therefore it can be concluded that the 5th silage formulation is the most appropriate since its DM and crude protein (CP) degradability were highest. The second experiment was carried out to determine the quality of the 5th silage mixtures (from the previous trial) after being stored for up to 6 months. The experiment was a complete randomized design with samples taken at monthly intervals up to 6 months and subjected to laboratory and degradability analyses. The results showed no significant (p>0.05) difference in chemical composition except for increased neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber percentage in association with increasing storage time. There were no significant (p>0.05) differences in 'Flieg point' among times of storage. In conclusion, this experiment showed that the silage from agricultural by-products can be stored for more than 6 months.