Quality and fermentation characteristic of corn stover - rubber cassava (Manihot glaziovii M.A) combination silage

Utilization of agricultural by-products as animal feed has enormous potential. The abundant availability and low prices make it a potential source of feeding commodities. However, seasonal availability and low quality of feed ingredients from agricultural waste becomes an obstacle to making it a quality feed with continuous availability. This research was conducted using Corn Stover (CS) combined with Rubber Cassava Leaves (RC) with different proportions (90: 0, 80:10, 70:20, and 60:30) as Silage and yellow corn (CY) as additives of the remaining 10%. Silage fermented by using a 1-liter silo tube model for 21 days of fermentation. The parameters observed were silage pH, dry matter content (DM), Fleigh score and crude protein content (CP). The results showed that the use of RC affects the pH and CP silage produced. The pH of silage becomes more acidic when there is an RC combination compared to the control due to WSC availability, as the BAL energy source substrate enough contained in the RC. It also occurs in CP content that linearly increases (8.47-16.04) when the proportion of RC increases because RC has a high CP content. Meanwhile, the use of RC up to 30% level did not affect the content of DM silage which resulted in the perfect silage Fleigh score (94.7-98.8). Thus, the use of RC as a CS silage combination material will be able to improve the quality of silage so as to increase the quality feed from agricultural by-products.