Associative effects of sorghum silage and sorghum grain diets

A metabolism trial was conducted to quantitate associative effects between sorghum silage and sorghum grain, and to identify responsible factors. Diets were formulated by mixing ground sorghum grain (0, 15, 30, 45 and 60% of diet dry matter) with sorghum silage and were adjusted to 15.0% crude protein with soybean meal. Cannulated Beefmaster-cross steers (300 kg) were adapted to diets for 14 d followed by 5 d of fecal collection during which digestibility of components was determined. Intake of digestible dry matter and digestibilities of dry matter and neutral detergent fiber increased with increases in diet grain content (linear effect: P less than .01, P less than .01, P less than .05, respectively; quadratic effect: P less than .05, P less than .005, P less than .06, respectively). Digestibilities of starch, crude protein and hemicellulose were not significantly affected by grain level. Ruminal pH averaged 6.0 and was not significantly affected by grain level or time of sampling. Ruminal in situ digestion of neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber at 48 h decreased (linear contrast, P less than .001) with increasing grain content. Rate of passage of liquid digesta was not affected by grain level in the diet. The rate of passage of particulate digesta decreased linearly (P less than .005, orthogonal contrast) with increasing levels of grain. Low levels of sorghum grain (15 and 30%) improved digestibility and intake of digestible dry matter of sorghum silage-based diets, whereas higher rates of grain supplementation (45 and 60%) did not result in further improvement.