Evaluation of Associative Effect of Whole Corn Silage and Millet Straw by Gas Production Technique in vitro

This research adopted fermentation gas production method in vitro to evaluate the associative effect of whole corn silage (WCS) and millet straw (MS).The WCS was mixed with MS in the proportion of 100:0,80:20,60:40,50:50, 40:60,20:80 and 0:100 with 3 replicates per group.The gas production,pH,ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N), volatile fatty acids (VFA), microbial crude protein (MCP) and dry matter loss (DML) for 24,48 and 72 h of varying forage combinations were analyzed.Single factor associative effects index (SFAEI) and multiply factors associative effects index (MFAEI) of different combinations were calculated. The results showed as follows:There were significant differences of gas production among different combinations (P<0.05),and the best combination was the WCS80 group. With creasing of the content of MS,DML decreased,but the DML of WCS80 and WCS100 were similar (P>0.05). The MCP concentration of WCS100 and WCS80 was extremely significantly or significantly higher than other groups (P<0.05;P<0.01). The VFA concentration showed significant differences among different combinations (P<0.05).Among the different combinations of WCS and MS,the MFAEI of WCS80 was the largest,and that were 0.5517,0.5094 and 0.9860 at 24,48 and 72 h,respectively. The best combination of WCS and MS was 80:20.