Pretreatment of lignocellulose agricultural biomass with iron prior to ensiling is required
to accelerate biomass breakdown during fermentation, which could result in functional
microorganisms and chemicals that reduce nutrition loss, harmful substances, and
improve animal performance. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects
of increasing dilutions of ferrous sulfate heptahydrate (FS) pretreatment at fresh matter
concentrations of 0, 0.015, and 0.030% on the fermentation quality of black cane (BC)
silage, anthocyanin stability, ruminal biogas, rumen fermentation profile, and microbial
community. Pre-ensiled and silage materials were evaluated. High moisture, fiber,
anthocyanin, and lignification of biomass, as well as undesirable ensilingmicroorganisms,
were found in BC’ pre-ensiled form. Increasing dilutions of FS incorporated into silages
were observed to linearly decrease dry matter, anthocyanin, and nutritive value losses.
The lignin values decreased linearly as the percentage of FS increased up to 0.030%.
Given that the ruminants were fed pre-ensiled materials, BC silage treated with 0.030%
FS dilution had comparable results to pre-ensiled BC in terms of increasing in vitro
volatile fatty acid concentrations,maintaining total gas production, and reducingmethane
production, when compared to other FS-treated silages. In addition, BC silage treated
with a 0.030% FS dilution inhibited methanogenic bacteria and regulated cellulolytic
bacteria in rumen fluid. Overall, the anthocyanin content of BC remained constant
throughout the rumen fermentation process after increasing dilutions of FS, indicating
that BC is a viable ruminant feedstock and that pretreatment of BC with dilute FS-assisted
ensiling at 0.030% could be used to generate ruminant diets.
Keywords: anthocyanin, cellulolytic bacteria, ferrous sulfate heptahydrate, gut microbiota, iron-treated silage,
potential feedstuff, ruminant performance