The objective was to evaluate the addition of additives in the ensiling of sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum L.) on the degradation of DM and components of cellular wall and on ruminal fermentation parameters in bovines fed with diets containing these silages. Five rumen-cannulated Nelore steers were allotted to a 5 x 5 latin square design. The steers were placed in metabolic cages and fed diets with 65% forage (%DM). Five silages were evaluated (wet basis): Control sugar cane, no additives; Urea sugar cane + 0.5% of urea; Benzoate sugar cane + 0.1% of sodium benzoate; LP - sugar cane inoculated with Lactobacillus plantarum (1 x 10(6) cfu/g forage); LB sugar cane inoculated with L. buchneri (3.6 x 10(5) cfu/g forage). During 90 days, before the animal feeding, the forage was stocked in vertical silos.Ruminal parameters were slightly affected by the silages and a strong effect of sampling time. Averages of molar concentration of acetic, propionic and butyric acids were 60.9, 19.3, and 10.2 mM, respectively. Ruminal environment proportionate by the formulated diets with sugar cane sugar silages was satisfactory and similar to traditionally observed in diets containing sugar cane. The additive used in the ensiling influenced, in a no-significant form, the ruminal degradability of DM an OM, but it did not alter the ruminal degradability of the fiber fraction. The additives applied to the sugar cane resulted in slightly alterations? for most evaluated variable. Although the ruminal degradability of silages was little affected by the additive use, the observed values were similar to the observed for the sugar cane in natura.
additives; beef cattle; forage conservation; losses; metabolism; VFA
