Effects of adding propylene glycol or monensin to corn silage on the degradation kinetics of carbohydrates and in vitro cumulative gas production

The effects of the additives propylene glycol and/or monensin on the degradation of total carbohydrates, pH, and cumulative gas production of corn silage by the semi-automated in vitro gas production technique were evaluated. The treatments were corn silage (CS); CS plus propylene glycol (CS+PG); CS plus monensin (CS+MO), and CS plus propylene glycol and monensin (CS+PG+MO), which were evaluated at two, four, six, 12, 24, 48, and 96 hours. The addition of monensin or monensin plus propylene glycol increased (P < 0.05) the degradation of total carbohydrates at 2h. The effective degradations of total carbohydrates for CS+MO treatment (55.2; 42.7; and 36.5%) were the highest in all passage rates. The use of monensin reduced cumulative gas production from 12 to 96h. CS+MO treatment had the lowest potential of gas production (221ml/ g total carbohydrates), and the lowest Lag phase (1.08h), as compared to CS and CS+PG treatment (1.58 and 1.49h, respectively). Cumulative gas production and degradation of total carbohydrates were highly correlated (94 to 97%; P < 0.01). The pH was inversely correlated to degradability of total carbohydrates (r= -0.79; P < 0.01). Thus, monensin may be used for improving the ruminal degradability of corn silage.