AN EXAMINATION OF THE ROLE OF SILAGE JUICE ON THE INTAKE OF SILAGE

The study examines the effects of extracting juice from ensiled forage , and its partial or complete reconstitution, on the ad libitum intake of sheep. Sixty ewes were offered one of six treatments in a randomis ed block design experiment lasting 3 weeks. The treatments included gr ass silage (T1), silage from which juice was removed and then added ba ck (T2), silage from which juice was removed and 50% added back (T3), silage from which juice was removed (T4), silage from which juice was removed and 50% juice/50% water mixture added back (T5) and silage fro m which juice was removed and 100% water, by weight, added back (T6). Juice was removed using a purpose-built hydraulic press and added back using a tumble mixer. The removal of silage juice increased the dry m atter (DM) concentration of silage and reduced its nitrogen, ammonia N , lactic and acetic acid concentration. Silage juice extraction led to an increase in mean intakes of the fibrous residue of silage over the experiment (T1, 1.04; T2, 1.10; T3, 1.21; T4, 1.23; T5, 1.18; T6, 1.2 8 kg DM/day, s.e. 0.056) but had no effect on whole silage intakes by sheep (T1, 1.27; T2, 1.33; T3, 1.33; T4, 1.23; T5, 1.30; T6, 1.28 kg D M/day, s.e. 0.056). The results indicate that total silage DM intake i n this study was not controlled by physical mechanisms.