This study aimed to assess impacts of fungal treatment on the nutritional value of peanut hulls (PH) or urea at the rate of 5 kg/100 g of PH. Fermented sugar beet pulp inoculated with Trichoderma viride was supplemented to PH at rates of 5.0, 10.0 and 15.0 g/100 g air dry of PH and mixed well before aerobic incubation for 21 days. Organic matter (OM) content of PH declined with increased levels of fermented sugar beet pulp inoculums, while crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), and ash increased. Fiber contents were decreased with both treatments of fermented sugar beet pulp and urea. Total N of PH increased with urea treatment, which reduced the true protein N to total protein N ratio. In sacco degradabilities of dry matter (DM), OM, and CP with urea treatment increased compared with fungal treatment. The DM intake of peanut hulls treated with fungus (PHF) was higher (P < 0.05) than with peanut hulls treated with urea (PHU). Digestibility of OM, CP, neutral detergent fiber, and non-fiber carbohydrate by native breed Ossimi sheep with PH were higher (P < 0.05) than with PH or urea treated PH. The intakes, losses, and balance of N increased (P < 0.01) with PHF versus PH feeding. Feeding PHF increased (P < 0.01) ruminal concentrations of NH3-N, acetic acid, butyric acid, and the acetic to propionic acid ratio. Bacterial and protozoal counts increased (P < 0.05) with feeding PHF or PHU versus PH. Overall, this fungal treatment of peanut hulls created a higher nutritive value feed for ruminants.

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This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of partial substitution of corn grain by discarded dates on silage quality and their effect on digestibility, milk production and composition. Sixteen crossbreed lactating Friesian cows were assigned to four balanced groups and fed individually for 90 days on experimental rations whereas: all the groups were received a basal diet with one of four kinds of silages as follows: 100 % crushed corn grain (T1), 75 % crushed corn grain + 25% discarded dates (T2), 50 % crushed corn grain + 50 % discarded dates (T3) and 25 % crushed corn grain + 75 % discarded dates (T4) on gross energy based, respectively. Results found that there was slight tendency to increase silage DM content with increasing the entry level of discarded dates. Silages containing discarded dates displayed OM and ash contents nearly identical to those of the control diet. The pH values of the tested silage samples ranged from 3.89 in S1 to 3.72 in S4. The ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) concentration in silage was decreased with increasing proportion of discarded dates in the silage. The digestibility coefficient of DM and OM were significantly (P<0.05) higher in the diets containing discarded dates than in the control diet. However, there was insignificant (P>0.05) increases in the digestibility of CP, CF, NDF and ADF for dietary treatment T2, T3 and T4 compared to the control (T1). Also, no significantly (P>0.05) different of dry matter intake was observed among dietary treatments. The highest actual milk and 4% fat corrected milk yield were recorded with T4 (10.87 and 10.24, respectively), while the lowest values for these items were corresponding to T1 (10.06 and 8.56, respectively) but the differences were not significant. Regarding of milk pH value, milk protein and ash contents have the same trend among groups with nonsignificant different among groups. However, there were significant differences in the milk percentages of fat, solid not fat (SNF), lactose and total solids between T1 (the lowest one) and each of T2, T3 and T4. Results of this study indicated that partial replacement of yellow corn grains by discarded dates up to 75% as a source of energy in silage did not show any negative effect on digestibility, feed efficiency, milk yield and composition in crossing Friesian cows.

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