examination of the role of silage juice on the intake of silage

The study examines the effects of extracting juice from ensiled forage, and its partial or complete reconstitution, on the ad libitum intake of sheep. Sixty ewes were offered one of six treatments in a randomised block design experiment lasting 3 weeks. The treatments included grass silage (T1), silage from which juice was removed and then added back (T2), silage from which juice was removed and 50% added back (T3), silage from which juice was removed (T4), silage from which juice was removed and 50% juice/50% water mixture added back (T5) and silage from which juice was removed and 100% water, by weight, added back (T6). Juice was removed using a purpose-built hydraulic press and added back using a tumble mixer. The removal of silage juice increased the dry matter (DM) concentration of silage and reduced its nitrogen, ammonia N, lactic and acetic acid concentration. Silage juice extraction led to an increase in mean intakes of the fibrous residue of silage over the experiment (T1, 1.04; T2, 1.10; T3, 1.21; T4, 1.23; T5, 1.18; T6, 1.28 kg DM/day, s.e. 0.056) but had no effect on whole silage intakes by sheep (T1, 1.27; T2, 1.33; T3, 1.33; T4, 1.23; T5, 1.30; T6, 1.28 kg DM/day, s.e. 0.056). The results indicate that total silage DM intake in this study was not controlled by physical mechanisms.