Influence of replacing brewers' grains with green tea grounds on feed intake, digestibility and ruminal fermentation characteristics of wethers

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to examine feed intake, apparent digestibility, nitrogen balance, ruminal fermentation and blood components of wethers fed diets containing increasing levels of wet green tea grounds (WGTG). The experimental design was a 4 ¥ 4 Latin square with four wethers in four 15-day periods. Wethers were allowed access to diets ad libitum, and allotted to one of four treatments in which WGTG replaced 0% (no WGTG added, CTG), 5% (low level, LBG), 10% (medium level, MTG), and 15% (high level, HTG) of total mixed ration (TMR) dry matter (DM) as wet brewers grains (WBG). All TMR silages were ensiled for 120 days and, irrespective of the WGTG addition, they were well preserved with a high lactic acid content, low pH and ammonia-N contents. There were no differences among treatments in feed intake, with the exception of ether extract intake (P = 0.032). Digestibilities for LTG and MTG treatments were not different from CTG. However, the organic matter, crude protein, acid detergent fiber and energy digestibilities for HTG treatment were lower than the CTG (P < 0.05). As the level of WGTG increased, nitrogen intake did not differ, but fecal nitrogen increased (P = 0.002), while urinary nitrogen decreased (P < 0.001). No differences among treatments were found in pH level and volatile fatty acids concentrations. However, the ruminal ammonia-N of the HTG silage was lower than for the CTG silage at all times (P < 0.05). Increasing concentrations of WGTG in the TMR silage decreased (P = 0.019) plasma urea nitrogen content. Therefore, the possible mixing proportion of WGTG for TMR silages can be 10% of the diet DM.

Fermentative quality of purple rice (Oryza sativa L.) silage and its effects on digestibility, ruminal fermentation and oxidative status markers in sheep: A preliminary study

“…, ; Xu et al . ). All feces and urine were separately recovered through floor grates (25‐mm mesh) and metal gauze (5‐mm mesh) every morning.…”

“…A balance trial, based on the collection of total feces and urine, was conducted to measure whole-tract digestibility and oxidative status marker in urine for 5 days (Hosoda et al 2005(Hosoda et al , 2006Xu et al 2008). All feces and urine were separately recovered through floor grates (25-mm mesh) and metal gauze (5-mm mesh) every morning.…”

Utilization of tea grounds as feedstuff for ruminant

“…Besides, many researches have shown that the substitution of GTG for wet brewers’ grains (BG) at ratios of up to 15% on DM basis of TMR could be well preserved with high lactic acid content, low pH and NH 3 -N content [ 4 , 28 ]. While, the replacement of BTG and soybean meal mixture (7:3 on DM basis) for BG at ratios of up to 15% DM of TMR could increase lactic acid concentration, decrease pH, acetic acid and NH 3 -N of the TMR silage [ 15 ].…”

“…The study suggested that a high GTG level of 15% of diet DM can be recommended for silage based TMR. In contrast, feed intake and N retention of TMR silage were also not affected with the GTG increased up to 15% [ 28 ]. Compared with the control, digestibilities for the 5% and 10% treatments were not different, while that for 15% treatment was lower.…”

Effects of feeding ratio of beet pulp to alfalfa hay or grass hay on ruminal mat characteristics and chewing activity in Holstein dry cows

“…By‐product feeds have been attracting more attention recently because of the rising international price of grain. For this reason, there is an increasing demand in Japan for by‐product feeds, such as green tea grounds (Xu et al. 2008), potato pulp (Sugimoto et al.…”