Thirteen samples including fresh rice straw
rice straw ensiled with a bacterial inoculant (THl)
rice straw ensiled with a bacterial supplement and a enzyme supplement (THlEZ)
rice straw ensiled with molasses
fresh elephant grass
elephant grass ensiled with TH1
elephant grass ensiled with TH1 and a multi-enzyme supplement (EZ)
elephant grass ensiled with molasses
fresh maize forage
maize forage ensiled with TH1
maize forage ensiled with TH1 and EZ
maize forage ensiled with molasses, fresh by-product of the pineapple processing industry, and pineapple by-product ensiled with TH1 and EZ were used in an in sacco experiment to investigate effects of the molasses and biological supplements (TH1 and EZ) as additives for ensiling of the above forages. The fresh forages were sampled just before ensiling and dried in an oven before being ground through a 2 mm screen sieve in a hammer mill. The silages were sampled on day 60th of the ensiling period and freeze dried before being ground through a 2 mm screen sieve in a hammer mill. The in sacco procedure described by Orskov et al. (1980) was applied, using two fistulated hybrid Sind steers, and the ruminal degradation characteristics of the samples were estimated from the losses of the samples after 0, 4, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h of incubation in the rumen of the steers. Results show that using molasses, TH1, and EZ as a sole additive in ensiling of the forages did not improve the degradability of DM and NDF in the fresh rice straw, elephant grass and maize forage. However, TH1 and EZ as a combined additive could increase the degradability of DM and NDF of the elephant grass, maize forage, and pineapple by-product silages by 4.7- 10.1 percent and 12.7 percent-20.8 percent, respectively.