the initial rate of enzymatic sugar release was therefore determined as a measure of the susceptibility of ndf fractions to said attack the values are compared to the no enzyme control zero with positive values indicating an increase in the availability of sugar for rumen microbes and negative values showing that too much sugar has been converted to acids in the ensilage process it can be seen that enzyme fraction d alone or in combinations is less suitable for use in the ensilage process due to the strong sugar release efficiency fraction a had a strong positive effect on the initial rate of sugar production 95 of the sugars released consisted of glucose and cellobiose when both a and d were present fraction d was the dominating one fraction a alone or in combination with b c or bc improves the availability of sugar to the rumen microbes and is beneficial for this application acetylation of the ndf fractions from the enzyme treated silages showed that the removal of the carbohydrate component of the cell wall material does not decrease the number of reactive hydroxyl groups on the contrary the efficiency of the carbohydrate digesting enzyme combinations increased 14 c.