Abstract This study aimed to evaluate the fermentation characteristics, nutritive value and in vitro ruminal digestibility of a mixed silage of sweet sorghum (SS) with peanut vine hay (PVH) or distiller grains (DG). Silage was produced without any additives (CON) or with 10% (P1) or 20% (P2) PVH or 10% (D1) or 20% (D2) DG on fresh matter. All silage was ensiled in capped bottles and preserved for 60 days. The lowest pH value was found in D2 silage, followed by D1, CON, P1 and P2 silage ( P .05) was found for the treatments. Furthermore, PVH‐ or DG‐treated silage had a lower ruminal fermentation pH ( P < .05). Our study demonstrates that the addition of PVH or DG can improve the fermentation quality, nutritional value and in vitro ruminal digestibility of SS silage. Notably, the fermentation efficacy of DG was higher than that of PVH. Therefore, inclusion of 20% PVH or DG in the silage formulation is recommended.
Xie et al. (Sun,) studied this question.