Manipulation of the pineapple leaves for the development of silage suitable for the cattle feed

Pineapple leaves has been identified as potential alternative feed especially to solve the issue of limited cattle feed supply. Abundant amount of pineapple leaf waste from plantation introduced a new cattle feed source and make it easier to obtain. However, the high fibrous level in the leaves need to be reduced prior to the cattle consumption to prevent digestive problems on the cattle. The purpose of this study was to investigate the suitability of pineapple (Ananas comasus) leaf silage as alternative feed for the cattle by using two treatments, one with the additive of molasses and another one is with the addition of molasses and effective microorganisms (EM). Two groups of silage with 5% of molasses only (PM) and 5% of molasses with addition of 5% of EM (PEM) were prepared. Nutrition composition (dry matter, moisture content, ash content, crude protein, crude fibre and crude fat) of both silages were determined by proximate analysis while reducing of sugar was determined by the reaction of alkaline cooper reagent with phosphomolybdic acid in Folin-Wu method. Proximate analysis showed that the PM silage has high amount of moisture content, ash content and crude fat while PEM silage was higher in dry matter, crude protein and crude fibre. Addition of EM on pineapple leaf proved that energy in silage can be improved by the increased of dry matter and crude fibre along with crude protein. The result showed that the reaction of lactic acid bacteria with yeast from EM solution may have facilitated the fermentation of the pineapple leaves as indicated by the increased of reducing sugar concentration than PM. For reducing sugar, both silages have undergone successful fermentation process as indicated by low concentration of sugar with PM has lower concentration than PEM. However, there is no statistically significant different between PM and PEM silage on all elements analysed (DM, moisture content, ash content, crude protein, crude fibre, crude fat and reducing sugar). Nonetheless, but the result suggests that the addition of EM increased the protein and sugar content while PM has higher value of moisture content, ash content and crude fat.