Fermentation Quality of Ensiled Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) as Affected by Additives

A lab-scale ensiling study was carried out to investigate the fermentation quality of water hyacinth (WH) supplemented with molasses, rice bran, as an absorbent, and an inoculant in the form of fermented vegetable juice and their combinations. After wilting the water hyacinths for 7 h to a dry matter (DM) content of 240 to 250 g/kg, the following treatments were applied: i) Control (C), WH only; ii) WH with sugarcane molasses at 40 g/kg WH (CM); iii) WH inoculated with fermented vegetable juice at 10 ml/kg WH (CI); iv) CM and CI (CMI) combined; v) WH with 150 g rice bran/kg WH (CA); vi) CA and CI combined (CAI); vii) CA and CM combined (CAM); and viii) CA, CM and CI combined (CAMI). After application of additives, the differently treated forages were mixed and ensiled in triplicates in 1,500-ml polyethylene jars. After ensiling for 3 d, pH values in all treatments, except C and CI, had decreased to approximately 4.0 and remained low till 14 d. After 56 d, pH had increased between 0.4 to 0.9 pH-units compared to those at 14 d. The ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) concentration ranged from an acceptable level in treatment CM (8 g/kg N) to a high NH3-N value in treatment CMI (16 g/kg N). Lactic acid formation was higher in CI than in all other treatments. Butyric acid contents, which indicate badly fermented silages, were low in all silages (<2 g/kg DM). There were two-way interactions (p-values from <0.001 to 0.045) for almost all fermentation end-products and pH, except for the molasses×inoculant interaction on NH3-N (p = 0.26). Significant 3-way interactions were found on all observed variables except for weight losses of silages. It is concluded that conserving wilted WH as silage for ruminants may be improved by the addition of molasses or rice bran.