Mean ruminal pH tended to be
greater (P = 0.071) for MOL (Table
2). The minimum ruminal pH was not
different across treatments; however,
the maximum ruminal pH was greatest
(P < 0.05) for MOL, explaining
the tendency toward greater mean
ruminal pH. The minimum ruminal
pH was greater than 6.4 for all
treatments, which has been shown
to be the optimal pH for cellulose
digestion (Hoover, 1986; Wales et al.,
2004). Supplementation levels in the
current study were low enough that
large variations in ruminal pH were
not seen, which would support the
lack of differences in nutrient digestibility.
The results of other researchers
support these findings; they have
reported that feeding molasses up to
12% of the total DMI did not affect
ruminal pH of dairy cows fed conserved
forages (Broderick and Radloff,
2004; Oelker et al., 2009).
Molar proportions of individual
and total VFA, as well as acetate-topropionate
ratio, were not affected
by treatments (Table 2). This lack of
response is in contrast to the reports
of others, who found increased
concentrations of ruminal butyrate
in experiments conducted with cattle