Effect of administering molasses and sugar beet pulp on nutritional value of laying hen litter silage

Poultry excreta in ruminant ration could have a considerable effect on reducing costs, increasing the level of protein in diet, and solving disposal problems. Generally, poultry excreta are high in fiber and ash. They appear to have energy concentration, calcium, nitrogen, and phosphorous levels exceeding that of some high-quality hay. Poultry excreta can be used in livestock feed especially where there is a large shortage of nutritious feed. This study was conducted in order to investigate the effect of adding different levels of molasses and sugar beet pulp on chemical composition, gas production and fermentation parameters of laying hen litter silage.
This research was performed according to completely randomized design with seven treatments and three replicates. Treatments were: T1 (litter silage without additive), T2, T3 and T4 (control 5, 10 and 20% of molasses) and T5, T6 and T7 (control 5, 10 and 20% of sugar beet pulp) / g kg-1 silage), respectively. The chemical composition of the samples was determined using the standard methods. The gas production test was used to estimate the parameters of gas production in samples. In vitro digestibility of samples was determined by the batch culture method. The data were analyzed using SAS software. To compare mean values, the least significant difference was used.
The results indicated that there were significant differences among treatments in terms of chemical composition (P According to results of this study the use of molasses and sugar beet pulp in order to improve the nutritional value of laying hen excreta silage is recommended.