In vitro rumen fermentation kinetics, chemical and fatty acids composition of orange peel silage with corn meal

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of corn meal in silage orange peel in natura. The experiment has adopted a completely randomized, with four treatments (corn meal levels) and four replications. There were used experimental silos made of bucket of 12 L. Silos were opened at 90 days after ensiling, and evaluated the gases and effluent losses, pH, chemical composition, volatile fatty acids (acetic, propionic, butyric, valeric, isovaleric), and in vitro gas production. The dry matter (DM), ether extract (EE), non-fiber carbohydrates (NFC), and organic matter showed a linear increase with the inclusion of corn meal. The contents of neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and crude protein (CP) decreased with increasing proportion of corn meal. Regarding the rumen fermentation kinetics there was a quadratic effect of increasing inclusion of corn meal in the final volume of gas from the non-fiber carbohydrates (VfCNF) and quadratic effect in decreasing total gas production of the fiber (VfCF). The orange peel can be conserved as silage with the inclusion of corn meal, allowing satisfactory pH levels and minimize effluent losses, ensuring good preservation of the silage. The levels of 8 and 12% were the most efficient, ensuring higher levels of DM, lower levels of NDF and ADF, higher levels of NFC, higher production volume of gas, which can be considered a suitable source of forage for ruminants in general.