Table 4.

Effects of increasing substitute alfalfa hay (AH) with hemp forage (HF) in the diet on the ruminal microbiota of Xiangdong black goats at phylum level (relative abundance, %).

Item	Treatments1				SEM	P-value2
	CON	HF5	HF10	HF20		T	L	Q
Bacteroidetes	70.32	72.53	69.83	72.36	1.914	0.671	0.624	0.825
Firmicutes	22.43	21.44	22.41	22.01	1.804	0.978	0.969	0.931
F:B ratio3	0.32	0.30	0.33	0.31	0.032	0.917	0.951	0.931
Proteobacteria	2.97	3.37	4.28	2.49	0.886	0.543	0.691	0.202
Spirochaetes	2.16	1.13	1.31	1.20	0.432	0.330	0.228	0.269
Fibrobacteres	1.34	0.79	1.32	0.58	0.297	0.208	0.150	0.702
Tenericutes	0.21b	0.23b	0.32b	0.83a	0.201	0.045	0.028	0.388
Actinobacteria	0.15	0.16	0.22	0.17	0.022	0.153	0.327	0.121
Others	0.43	0.33	0.33	0.37	0.061	0.635	0.589	0.267

^{a, b} Means least square of means within a row with different superscripts differ (P ≤ 0.05).

¹CON = 60% AH without HF; HF5 = 55% AH + 5% HF; HF10 = 50% AH + 10% HF; HF20 = 40% AH + 20% HF; AH, alfalfa hay; HF, hemp forage.

²T = treatment; L = linear; Q = quadratic; CON was included in L and Q analysis.

³F:B = Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio.