Copyright 2012 American Scientic Publishers Journal of

All rights reserved Biobased Materials and Bioenergy

Printed in the United States of America Vol. 6, 14, 2012

Silage from Malaysia Rice Straw Treated with Rice Bran,

Coconut Pulp, Molasses and Effective Microorganisms
Siti Hamidah Mohd-Setapar1
, Norfahana Abd-Talib2 , and Ramlan Aziz2
1
Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Centre of Lipid Engineering and Applied Research (CLEAR),
Chemical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,
81310 UTM Skudai, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
2
Institute of Bioproduct Development, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,
81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

The effect of different additives on ensiling of rice straw silage was examined by investigate the
effects of the rice straw and rice bran ratio and amount of effective microorganism (EM) additive in
silage ber, protein and ash content by adding a constant amount of molasses, coconut pulp and
salts. The design of study used the percentage ratio of rice straw to rice bran at 50:50 and 75:25.
The other materials in the different amount in every formulation which is 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 gram of EM
the others are constantly put in every formulations, which are 1.5 gram of molasses, 15 grams of
coconut pulp and 1 gram of salts. The ensiling process occurs in 30 days at room temperature room.
Analysis of Crude Protein (CP) using Kjedahl method (AOAC, 1995), Ash using combustion method
(ASTM D3174-11) and Crude Fibre (CF) by lter bag technique (AOCS Ofcial Method Ba 6-84,
AOAC 962.09). Statistical analysis was performed using general linear equation of Standard Error of
Mean Deviation (SDME). In the present study, we found all treatments increased CP and decreased
CF and Ash content relative to untreated silage. In addition, the application of a large amount of

RESEARCH ARTICLE
EM produced well-preserved silage but too high amount can affect the ash content. Feeding trial
were suggested to be perform to investigate how the treatment of silage helps the digestibility and
cows product quality compared to untreated silage. Besides that, the examination on coconut pulp,
salt and molasses amount in formulation must be performed to know the contributions on silage
performance.
Keywords: Silage, Malaysia, Rice Straw, Animal Feed, Livestock.

1. INTRODUCTION low digestibility.2 The Food and Agriculture Organization

Currently, the price of cereal grains and high demand
of cereal for human consumption resulted in a demand
for alternative, traceable and low cost feed resource for
livestock. Protein from nitrogen supplementation is very
important to livestock in order to produce products that can
fulll market demand. Nitrogen supplementation is gener-
ally based on soy meal (SBM), which is costly.1 Hence,
this prompted many countries like Tunisia, to generate
large quantity of crops and industrial by-products, which
present high nutritional values. These include thousands
of tons of agricultural and agro-industrial by-products
likes sugarcane bagasses, citrus bagasses, fruit peel, corn
straw, corncobs, soy husk, barley and cereals, which can
be classied into two categorieshigh digestibility and
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Email: sitihamidah@cheme.utm.my
(FAO) estimated that the world paddy production for the
2010 season amounted to 700.7 million tons (467.3 million
tons, milled basis), which marked a new record and
was three percent larger than in the poor 2009 season.
In Malaysia, FAO estimated that the output in the coun-
try has grown by four percent to 2.6 tons (1.7 million
tonnes, milled basis).3 The by-products of paddy produc-
tion also increased, but mostly are burnt as waste. This
can worsen the current air pollution, causing the ozone
layer to become thinner. Not only, that, such burning can
cause many possible accidents, for example, there was
a man who died in a rice straw burning in Pasir Mas,
Kelantan.4 Instead of burning the by-products as waste,
the rice straw can be potentially utilized in silage pro-
duction. In European countries like Netherland, Germany
and Denmark, ensiled forages are highly valued as ani-
mal feed. More than 90% of the forages such as maize,
grasses, legumes and wheat are locally produced and

J. Biobased Mater. Bioenergy 2012, Vol. 6, No. xx 1556-6560/2012/6/001/004 doi:10.1166/jbmb.2012.1317 1

 Silage from Malaysia Rice Straw Treated with Rice Bran, Coconut Pulp, Molasses and EM
stored as silage.5 Silage can be a better feed for rumi-
nant than mono-gastric animals because microorganisms in
their rumen can release an enzyme to digest forages.6 The
potential of reproducing agricultural waste into silage form
of animal feed can contribute a high positive impact to
the local livestock industry. In some other countries, silage
produced from agricultural wastes has gradually replaced
expensive protein source.78 Other than that, silage can
be preserved in forages, thus is especially convenient for
countries that have four seasons as the farmers will not
need to worry about livestock feed during winter season.9
Therefore, silage can be classied as a sustainable prod-
uct because of its ability to reproduce from waste of plant
and animal. Rices bran is a by-product from paddy pro-
cessing and is nutritious as it contains protein and other
minerals. Not only, that, the addition of molasses and Lac-
tic acid bacteria will also affect the silage performance.
This is because the existence of molasses in silage can
maintain the highest count of good microorganisms in the
rumen of animal.6 The potential of Effective Microorgan-
isms, EM that is commonly applied in soil technology has
also been investigated further. From a commercial stand
point for silage production, EM is very suitable because
it is ecofriendly, organic, effective in all conditions, easy
to handle and safe for human health. Other than the silage
production, EMs potential in other elds such as agri-
culture, gardening, landscaping, bioremediation, cleaning
septic tanks, algal control and household use have also
been exposed.10 The main functions of EM are to produce
RESEARCH ARTICLE
substances that can act as an antioxidant, to inhibit harm-
ful microbial species, and to detoxify harmful substances
simultaneously.11 The aforementioned information shows
that EM may replace other bacteria for silage production.
The objective of this study was to examine the effects of
the rice straw and rice bran ratio and amount of EM addi-
tive in silage ber, protein and ash content by adding a
constant amount of molasses, coconut pulp and salts.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
The main materials used are rice straw and rice bran,
which is harvested from Skim Teluk Rimba at Ledang,
Johor. The coconut pulp and EM were obtained from
Institute of Bio-product Development, and the molasses
and salt will be purchased from a market. The design of
study used the ratio of rice straw to rice bran at 50:50
and 75:25. The amount of other materials is different in
every formulation, which is 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 gram of
EM the others are constantly put in every formulation,
which are 1.5 gram of molasses, 15 grams of coconut
pulp and 1 gram of salts. 35% of dry basis moisture con-
tent is used as reference in addition of distilled water
before ensiling for 30 days in a plastic container. The con-
tainer will be packed tightly before stored in-room temper-
ature. Each set of sample are readied in duplicate. After
30 days each sample was taken for analysis of CP using
2 J. Biobased Mater. Bioenergy 6, 14, 2012
Mohd-Setapar et al.
Kjedahl method (AOAC), Ash using combustion method
(ASTM D3174-11) and Crude Fibre by lter bag tech-
nique (AOCS Ofcial Method Ba 6-84, AOAC 962.09).
For started, 14 grams of homogenized (sub-samples from
each replicates treatment will be blended) will be placed
into 200 ml plastic bottle with 140 ml distilled water and
the bottle will be closed. The bottle will be shaken gen-
tly and kept in the refrigerator at 4  C for 24 hours for
equilibration. The extract will be ltered through four lay-
ers of No. 5 lter papers, and the ltrate will be used to
analyze. Ash content that represents the mineral content
will be analyzed by incineration of 5 grams of sample in
a mufe furnace at 600  C for eight hours. It determines
crude ber using lter bag technique, which is the organic
residue remaining after digesting with 0.255 N H2 SO4 and
0.313 N NaOH. The compounds removed are predomi-
nantly protein, sugar, starch, lipids and portions of both
the structural carbohydrates and lignin. Statistical analysis
was performed using general linear equation of Standard
Error of Mean Deviation (SDME).
3. RESULTS
Based on the Table I, the chemical composition of rice
straws presented that the amount of protein content is very
low, which is 4.62%. These are crucial nutrients in animal
feed growth performance, especially for cow. The crude
ber and ash content are 35.39% and 20.32% respectively.
According to result for crude ber in Table II, the 50:50
formulation of rice straw and rice bran ratio gives mean
value of percentage is 22.9837%. This value taken from
formulation 4, which gives the lowest amount of standard
mean deviation and low value of crude ber content com-
pared to others. For a ratio of 75:25, rst formulation gives
the lowest value of crude ber, which is 33.5133% com-
pared to other and have the lowest standard mean of devia-
tions. But by comparing the both ratios, 50:50 formulation
had lower value of crude ber and were reduced further
from the original rice straw composition. By analyzing the
crude protein data from Table III, it shows that for both
ratios gives the highest result of crude protein content in
formulation gives large deviation. The formulation 4 for
ratio 50:50 gives lowest deviation, and the crude protein
value is 6.62125%. For the other ratio, formulation 3 gives
the lowest number of deviation, which is good, and the
value of crude protein is 7.8469%. Comparing with orig-
inal crude protein content of rice straw is just 4.62%, the
percentage increase.
From this study, Table IV presented that large number of
EM gives a high number of mineral content in the silage.
For the formulation that used 50% of both rice straw and
rice bran, fourth formulation gives lowest deviation and
the value of mineral is 9.5121%. The other ratio gives
8.8809% of ash from fth formulation that gives the low-
est number of deviation. The 50:50 ratio of formulation
can produce more minerals just by 4 grams of EM used.
Mohd-Setapar et al. Silage from Malaysia Rice Straw Treated with Rice Bran, Coconut Pulp, Molasses and EM

Table I. Chemical compositions for raw materials and additives.

Ingredient Dry matter (%) Ash (%) Crude protein (%) Crude ber (%) Neutral detergent ber (%)

Rice straw (Han 1975) 90
93 20
32 4
62 35
39

Corn stalk (Mustafa et al. 2004) 24
3 3
6 9
9 57.1
Pineapple waste (Onwuka et al. 1997) 4
8 3
3 12
1
Napier grass (Manaye et al. 2009) 16
8 14
6 12 71.5
Rice bran (Zhao et al. 1996) 87
5 13
7 40.4
Crab shell (Benjakul and Sutthipan 2009) 1
67 14
31

Table II. Percentage of crude ber content in 50:50 and 75:25 formulations.

Formulation Replicate 1 50:50 Replicate 2 50:50 SEMD Replicate 1 75:25 Replicate 2 75:25 SEMD

1 24.8488 35.3922 31.6344 1
8789

2 20.0039 27.6365 3
8163 31.8862 39.5492 3
8315
3 23.5655 20.5028 1
53135 29.0498 40.7606 5
8554
4 24.3542 21.6133 1
37045 31.5999 38.9633 3
6817
5 31.2468 27.5558 1
8455 43.2044 41.5309 0
83675

Note: SEMD: Standard error of mean differences.

Table III. Percentage of crude protein content in 50:50 and 75:25 formulations.

Formulation Replicate 1 50:50 Replicate 2 50:50 SEMD Replicate 1 75:25 Replicate 2 75:25 SEMD

1 8.7394 5.8831 8
5700 1
34345

2 7.1344 9.4950 1
1803 6.1131 11
1063 2
4966
3 5.8813 6.8938 0
50625 7.3044 8
3894 0
5425
4 6.7375 6.5050 0
11625 6.5463 8
0081 0
7309
5 5.6088 6.4275 7
7925 0
6825

Note: SEMD: Standard error of mean differences.

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Table IV. Percentage of ash content in 50:50 and 75:25 formulations.

Formulation Replicate 1 50:50 Replicate 2 50:50 SEMD Replicate 1 75:25 Replicate 2 75:25 SEMD

1 12
3555 7.4660 12
2179 2
37595

2 9
7398 11
9365 1
09835 7.5238 12
6760 2
5761
3 9
9764 7.9931 11
6638 1
83535
4 9
4821 9
5420 0
02995 8.0642 10
7718 1
3538
5 10
0248 9
2896 0
3676 8.1305 9
6313 0
7504

Note: SEMD: Standard error of mean differences.

Fig. 1. Trend of crude ber content by comparing the rice straw, rice Fig. 2. Trend of crude protein content by comparing the rice straw, rice
bran ratio and EM content. bran ratio and EM content.

J. Biobased Mater. Bioenergy 6, 14, 2012 3

 Silage from Malaysia Rice Straw Treated with Rice Bran, Coconut Pulp, Molasses and EM
Fig. 3. Trend of ash content by comparing the rice straw, rice bran ratio
and EM content.
Comparing with the original rice straw, the mineral content
is high, which is 20.32%. By adding some other material
like coconut pulp, molasses, rice bran and EM may reduce
the mineral content of the silage. Some actions must be
taken to avoid this happen. The trends of each nutrient are
shown in Figures 13.
4. DISCUSSION
Crude ber in plant originates from certain structure units
like cellular walls as protection from wind, access tran-
spiration and inuence from undesirable factor. It is very
RESEARCH ARTICLE
important in regard to digestibility. 50:50 rice straw:rice
bran formulations have lower value of crude ber and were
reduced further from the original rice straw composition.
It will affect the ability of silage to be digested by cow.
Lowest crude ber content will give the cow high abil-
ity to digest a big amount of that silage formulation. The
big amount of EM content in this formulation which are
4 grams shows the ability of EM to inuence the ber
degradation during the fermentation process. The crude
protein value is a very important nutrient in animal feed
formulation. It contents are important for the balance and
digestibility of essential amino acids. The formulation that
used 75% of rice straw and 25% of rice bran gives higher
value of CP due to the stable amount of protein to be
degraded from rice straw and other additive, especially
from a large number of EM. Mineral content in animal
feed formulation also important roles in the body, includ-
ing enzyme functions, bone formation, water balance
maintenance, and oxygen transport in animal or human.
Small amount of effective additive can give high impact on
silage performance. For example, wormwood can improve
the feed intake, digestibility, Nitrogen retention and micro-
bial Nitrogen yield.12 Besides that, by adding legumi-
nous crops like black gram gives supplementary effect and
increases the total dry matter intake, digestibility of rice
4 J. Biobased Mater. Bioenergy 6, 14, 2012
Mohd-Setapar et al.
straw, and Nitrogen utilization.13 Animal remnants like
shrimp and crab shells have a big potential as additive but
the availability must be taken into account. Shrimp and
crab shells contain a high value of protein, especially in
shrimp heads in solid phase.14 From the result presented
above, some other wastes from plant like rice straw, corn
stalk and leaves, pineapple stalk, tapioca stalks also can be
used in Malaysia as they can be easily obtained.
5. CONCLUSION
In the present study, we found all treatments increased CP
and decreased CF and Ash content relative to untreated
silage. In addition, the application of a large amount of
EM produced well-preserved silage but too high amount
can affect the ash content. Feeding trial were suggested to
be perform to investigate how the treatment of silage helps
the digestibility and cows product quality compared to
untreated silage. Besides that, the examination on coconut
pulp, salt and molasses amount in formulation must be per-
formed to know the contributions on silage performance.
Acknowledgments: The Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
is thankful for the grant given by Dr. Siti Hamidah Mohd-
Setapars project (Q.JI3000.7125.00H02) under Research
University Grant Scheme, part of which enabled this
experimental work to be done. We are grateful for the con-
tribution of all people involved in this experimental work,
including all staffs in Institute Bio-product Development
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
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Received: 1 March 2012. Accepted: 19 April 2012.