IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2015) 6-1

Research article
erdNutrient Value and Palatability for Cattle on Corn Stover
SilageBUNNA CHEA*
Centre for Livestock Development Studies, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Email: bunna_chea@yahoo.com

THEARY HOUT
Centre for Livestock Development Studies, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

SEREY MOB
Centre for Livestock Development Studies, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

KOUCH THENG
Centre for Livestock Development Studies, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

MOM SENG
Centre for Livestock Development Studies, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Received 15 December 2014

Accepted 6 May 2015(*Corresponding Author)

Abstract As cultivated areas in Cambodia have increased, feed resources for feeding andgrazing cattle have decreased significantly. Plantings of yellow corn, however, haveincreased substantially, in particular, in the north-west of Cambodia; consequently, a hugeamount of corn residue is being produced but remains unused, despite offering potential asa cattle feed, particularly after ensiling. The aim of this study was to identify nutritive value
and palatability of corn stover silage for cattle feeding. Corn stover was chopped at
approximate 4 to 6 cm in length and ensilaged with different treatments as follows: 15%water (CSN), 3% salt+15% water (CSSa), 3% sugar palm+15% water (CSSu), and 10% rice
bran+15% water (CSRB). Cattle were adapted over a 5 day periods and 1 kg of each silage
was offered to each animal. The result shown that crude protein content in silage increasedon average from 6.41 to 9.7%. Within the treatments the chemical composition of dry
matter, crude protein, organic matter, ash and crude fiber were similar. However, the intakeof silage was significantly different. Cattle consumed more CSSu (177.88 gDM) than theother types of silages and ate about 100 gDM or less. CSSa was the lowest intake. Inconclusion, sugar (palm sugar) should be added to reach carbohydrate requirement in orderto help the silage fermentation process as the stover was mature with high DM% andneeded additional flavour added to the silage.
Keywords cattle, corn stover silage, flavour, palatability, silage

INTRODUCTION
Cattle play an important role in Cambodian farming systems and contribute to the householdincome. The estimated cattle population in 2011 was about 3,406,972 heads (DAHP, 2012).
The total estimated quantity of corn produced in 2012 was 780,774 tons, 83.9% of red cornand 16.1% of white corn, that was mostly grown in Battambang (106, 789.00 ha), Pailin (27,347.00ha), and Kandal (18,805.00 ha) and 4,028,404 tons of fresh corn residue (leave, stem, bushes andcob) was produced in 2010 (FAO, 2012).
Cambodian cattle farmers depend mainly on the use of natural feed resources (Mob et al.,2014), and feed availability is the most significant constraint on cattle production in Cambodia(Pen et al., 2009; Mob et al., 2014). Martin (2013) recommended that some corn stover should beⒸ ISERD103

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left in the field to conserve the soil, improve crop water-use efficiency, and feeding cattle. However,
the remaining should be used for other purposes, although, currently, few cattle farmers utilize theresidue for feeding (Mob et al., 2014). Feeding or grazing cattle in cropland after harvesting only
provides feed to cattle for short while. Moreover, during the harvesting period, other natural feed
resources are in abundance, leading to less use of fresh crop residues. Limin (2001) suggested thatstoring maize as silage can be an outstanding way to store maize crop residues, but to maximize
quality, it has to be ensiled using proper methods to create an anaerobic environment.
The fibrous increasing in the plants can lead to undesirable results of silage as a rapid
development of mould from difficult of removing oxygen (Randy et al., 1999) and inefficient
fermentation (Clark et al., 2009). Moreover, the more mature the plants the less digestible the dietssince there are a loss of nitrogen and carbohydrate (Randy et al., 1999). These studies attempted toimprove the quality of silage by adding extra carbohydrates during the silage making process.
Silage can be fed any time and is very palatable to livestock (Anon, 2013) and increases
productivity of beef and dairy cattle (Chin, 2002). The large amount of corn residues produced in
Cambodia can be stored and fed to cattle via hay making and silage making (Martin, 2013).
However, feed intake becomes a constraint for cattle production (Mob et al., 2014). By improving
the palatability of silage by using additives, intakes can be improved.
OBJECTIVE
This study was conducted to identify chemical contents of corn stover silage mixed with different
additives, and to investigate their effects on palatability.
METHODOLOGY
Silage Preparation and Experimental Animals
At harvesting time 105 day-old, sweet corn stover was obtained from farmers in Lerkdek district,Kandal province, Cambodia and cut into 5 cm lengths above the cob. Then, the stover wasimmediately transported to Royal University of Agriculture (RUA) and chopped into
approximately 4 to 6 cm lengths using a cutter machine. The chopped stover was fermented for 75
days with different ensilaging treatments: 15% water (CSN), 3% salt+15% water (CSSa), 3% sugar
palm+15% water (CSSu), or 10% rice bran+15% water (CSRB) and transferred into plastic bagswith each bag weighing 2kg and hand compress.
Four crossbred Haryana beef cattle, 2 bulls (2.5 year-old) and 2 cows (3 year-old), wereassigned to study on the palatability of corn stover silage. Prior to the experiment, all cattle wereadapted at least 5 days with corn stover fermented with 15% water. After that four trays containing
1 kg each of the four kinds of silage were offered to each animal at 8 am. At first, animals wereallowed to smell the silage for about 2 minutes and then they were allowed to select and eat for
about 10 minutes. The residues were collected and recorded then sub-sampled for chemical
analysis.
Data Collection and Analysis
After 75 days of ensilaging, samples of each silage were collected and analysed for dry matter(DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), crude ash (Ash) according to AOAC (1955) andcrude fibre (CF) (Van Soest et al., 1991) at graduate school laboratory, Royal University ofAgriculture. Prior the experiment, the silages (200 g) were taken for chemical analysis and also
after the experiment.

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Data Analysis
All data obtained from the present study were subjected to One-way ANOVA of variance using
SPSS 16.0 for analyze of the average of chemical composition of silage and feed intake. Significant
differences between the variables were identified using LSD multiple range test.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Preservation of crop residues can be challenging to some producers as it needs proper methods andprocedures to ensure the silage is in good condition. Harvesting plants for making silage must
consider the stage of maturity of the plant. Moisture content in plant is very important if the plant is
too young or too old; it can affect the quality of silage. In this study, we tried to use the mature crop
residue that is produced in large quantities in local areas.
Before ensiling, the stover had 6.41% crude protein and the dry matter was 45% (Table 1).
However, after preservation, the crude protein increased to about 9.7%. There were no differences
between treatments in crude protein content, with an observed range from 9.15 to 10.45% (Table 2).
This finding agreed with those of Kilmer and Hoyer (2012) that ensiling can produce high feed
quality for ruminants.
Table 1 Chemical composition of samples
SamplesCorn stover
Rice bran

DM (%)CP (%)OM (%)Ash (%)

CF (%)

45.00
93.05

6.41
11.53

85.12
84.18

0.35
0.41

22.30
11.56

Table 2 Chemical composition of corn stover silages
Type of corn stoversilages

DM (%)CP (%)OM (%)Ash (%)

CF (%)

Mean

Mean

Mean

Mean

Mean

CSN
CSSa
CSSu
CSRB
SEM
P

40.09
35.74
40.21
42.63
1.41
0.399

9.32
9.87
9.15
10.45
0.22
0.153

88.83
80.80
84.14
86.40
1.23
0.103

0.31
0.50
0.44
0.39
0.02
0.116

25.22
23.75
24.14
22.61
0.56
0.456

(CSN: Corn stover + no additives, CSSa: Corn stover + added salt, CSSu: Corn stover + added sugar palm, CSRB: Cornstover + added rice bran, SE: Standard Error Mean, P: Probability)

There were significant differences between the treatments (P=0.000) in the amount of silage
eaten by cattle (Table 3). In ten minutes eating, cattle showed a strong preference for CSSu (177.88g). Consumption of other types of silage was about 100 g or less. CSSa (57.21 g) had the lowest
intake.
As the corn stover was collected to ensile at harvesting stage that cause to the lack ofcarbohydrate and moisture (45% DM, Table 1). Sugar palm and rice bran (grade 3) were used toencourage the silage fermentation in which the acetic bacteria play a vital role in silage
fermentation process. This agree with Yokota and Ohshima (1997) that used raw or/and defatted
rice bran to better additive on the fermentation quality of the silage. The less intake of CSRB in thestudy may come from the long term preservation (75 days). According to Limin (2001), adding true
carbohydrate such as molasses could encourage the fermentation process and Limin (2014) also
indicated that silage additive with molasses effects on lactic fermentation, reducing silage pH,discouraging a clostridia fermentation and proteolysis, and generally decreasing organic matter
losses that it agreed with those of Keady (1996) that used molasses as silage additive improvesilage preservation and silage DM intake, but did not show the silage digestibility or animalⒸ ISERD

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performance. From our results, adding palm sugar to silage not only improved silage fermentation
but also increased palatability for cattle in comparison to non-additive silage and it providedinclude a good odour, colour, flavour, and texture. Jerry (2013) claimed that some researchattempted to prove adding salt to forage material at the time of ensiling can improve silage
fermentation, and with his result not only adding 40 g of salt/1 kg of fresh sorghum did show
positive effect, but it did also with the combination of lactic bacteria. However, it is argued by thestudy of Shockey and Borger (1991) that adding salt (4 g of salt/1 kg fresh alfalfa) would inhibit
growth of Clostridium and lactic acid bacteria result the silage was not well-preserved. With ourresult, adding salt 3% made less intake and short-preservation. Adding 15% water could increase
artificial moisture and can aid in dissolving sugar and salt. According Jerry (2013) found that no
additive sorghum silage contained 13.1 and 5 g/kg dry matter of butyric and propionic acidrespectively result from fermentation by clostridia bacteria that lead to less energy value andreduced palatability.
Table 3 Silage intake of corn stover silages (gDM)
Type of corn stover silages
CSNCSSaCSSuCSRB

Mean105.13b57.21c
177.88a81.34bc

SEM
10.29

P
0.000

(CSN: Corn stover + no additives, CSSa: Corn stover + added salt, CSSu: Corn stover + added sugar palm, CSRB: Cornstover + added rice bran, SE: Standard Error Mean, P: Probability, significant different: a>b>c)

CONCLUSION
The study shows that ensiling corn stover increases its crude protein content by 3.29%. Corn stover
ensiled with added sugar is more palatable for cattle than the corn stover silage without additives,or with added salt or rice bran.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The most sincerely thanks are to Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research(ACIAR): ASEM/2010/049, the Center for Livestock Development Studies, and graduate schoollaboratory, Royal University of Agriculture for their kind support on research fund and facility. Theauthor also wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Miss Chenda EN and Miss Sreychou
HENG who conducted the chemical analysis at graduate school, Royal University of Agriculture.
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