Water-soluble carbohydrate (WSC) is the key to producing quality forage silage and an important energy source for ruminants. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different silages used as roughage sources whole-plant sugarcane silage (WSS) vs. elephant grass silage (EGS) with varying levels of WSC on silage quality, buffalo growth performance, apparent digestibility, rumen fermentation, and microbial communities. Sixteen healthy male crossbred buffaloes were randomly divided into two treatment groups, with eight buffaloes/treatment. One group was fed whole-plant sugarcane silage, and the other group was fed elephant grass silage. Compared with EGS, WSS had higher WSC, lactic acid, and ethanol, but lower pH, ammonia nitrogen, propionic acid, and butyric acid (BA) contents (p 0. 05). Moreover, feeding WSS had lower dry matter digestibility (DMD), organic matter digestibility (OMD), and lower acid detergent fiber digestibility (ADFD) (p 0. 05), respectively, but the Pseudozyma was associated with BA (p 0. 05) in EGS. Our findings indicated that WSS exhibited superior fermentation quality and harbored potential beneficial microbes, whereas EGS showed higher apparent nutrient digestibility in buffalo but also contained undesirable bacteria (e. g. , Clostridiumₛensuₛtricto₁1). Future research should investigate the long-term effects of WSS feeding on buffalo health, immunity, and production performance, as well as its impact on rumen microbiota stability, to fully assess its potential as a safe and sustainable roughage source.
Gu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.