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 to12% 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