influence of sugar beet pulp and wheat bran as silage additives on the chemical composition and in vitro gas production of watermelon residue silage

This study examined the chemical composition and gas production of watermelon residue (wmr) silage supplemented with sugar beet pulp (sbp) and wheat bran (wb) as additives. after seed removal, the wmr was manually sliced and ensiled either without additives or with 100, 200, or 300 g/kg of sbp or wb. chemical composition and in vitro gas production parameters were then analyzed. the results showed that adding sbp or wb increased the dry matter. content and digestibility of wmr silage (p < 0.0001). neutral detergent fiber concentrations rose with higher levels of sbp and wb, while acid detergent fiber concentrations and the potential degradability (a + b) of silages decreased linearly across treatments (p < 0.0001). in contrast, wb supplementation significantly reduced metabolizable energy, short-chain fatty acids, and organic matter digestibility (p < 0.0001). gas production increased when wmr silage was treated with 10%, 20%, and 30% sbp and with 10% wb. overall, these findings indicate that incorporating sbp or wb can improve the nutritional value of wmr silage.