A mixture of potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate improved fermentation quality of whole‐plant corn silage by shifting bacterial communities

Abstract

Aims: To investigate the changes in fermentation quality of whole-plant corn silage ensiled with varying dosages of mixed organic acid salts (MS), and link these dosage changes to shifts in bacterial composition. Methods and Results: Fermentation quality and bacterial community of corn silage ensiled with MS at four application rates (0, 0Á67 g kg À1 , 1Á33 g kg À1 , and 2Á00 g kg À1 ) were investigated. The MS consisted of 40% potassium sorbate and 60% sodium benzoate. The corn silages were conserved for 42 days. Dry matter losses and ammonia nitrogen concentration were linearly declined by up to 19Á10 and 33Á3% with increasing dosages of MS. MS treatments significantly reduced the pH of silage vs the control group. Further analysis indicated that the improvement of fermentation quality was the result of shifts in bacterial composition, the relative abundance of Lactobacillus paralimentarius and Pediococcus spp. increased while Lactobacillus reuteri, Lactobacillus coryniformis and Klebsiella declined with increasing dosages of MS. Conclusions: MS effectively improved the fermentation quality of whole-plant corn silage with an optimum dosage of 2Á00 g kg À1 .Significance and Impact of the Study: The correlation between bacterial taxa and fermentation quality provides a potential for the development of novel silage inoculants and for the application of MS on controlling Klebsiella mastitis of livestock farms.

Microbial Communities, Metabolites, Fermentation Quality and Aerobic Stability of Whole-Plant Corn Silage Collected from Family Farms in Desert Steppe of North China

“…In silage with a good fermentation quality, the bacterial community is dominated by Lactobacillus [21], explaining the satisfactory fermentation quality of whole-plant corn silages in our study. Acinetobacter was found in sugarcane top silage [22], and Novosphingobium was detected in whole-plant corn silage [23] and red clover silage [24]. However, the effect of these genera to fermentation quality and aerobic stability are not clear and require further research.…”

Dynamics of Bacterial and Fungal Communities and Metabolites During Aerobic Exposure in Whole-Plant Corn Silages With Two Different Moisture Levels

“…Corn is the most common crop for ensiling and the main forage source for ruminants worldwide because of the high biomass yield, suitable starch concentration, and good fermentation quality ( Khan et al, 2015 ; Keshri et al, 2018 ; Guan et al, 2020 ; Zhang et al, 2020 ). To produce whole-plant corn silage, the plants are usually harvested between the one- and two-thirds milk-line stages ( Xu et al, 2019 ), leading to differences in the moisture content of raw materials and in the fermentation quality and bacterial community of silages ( Guan et al, 2018 ).…”

“…Previous studies revealed the microbial community dynamics in whole-plant corn silages inoculated with lactic acid bacteria (LAB) ( Keshri et al, 2018 ; Xu et al, 2020b ) and derived from materials obtained from three areas in Iran ( Gharechahi et al, 2017 ). Other recent investigations examined the bacterial community in whole-plant corn silages collected from five major ecological areas in southwestern China ( Guan et al, 2018 ) and treated with additives ( Romero et al, 2018 ; Guan et al, 2020 ; Zhang et al, 2020 ). During aerobic exposure, the fungus in silages becomes active and generates heat under aerobic conditions leading to aerobic deterioration and reduction of aerobic stability.…”

Treatment of Whole-Plant Corn Silage With Lactic Acid Bacteria and Organic Acid Enhances Quality by Elevating Acid Content, Reducing pH, and Inhibiting Undesirable Microorganisms

“…More recently, next-generation high-throughput sequencing (NGS) has been used to investigate microbial communities in Miscanthus floridulus (Li et al, 2015), soybean (Ni et al, 2017), corn stalk (Zhang et al, 2018), and corn silage (Keshri et al, 2018). Although previous studies have evaluated the effects of chemical additive on silage microbiome (Ren et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2020), the microbial community in corn silage treated with mixed organic acids has not yet been investigated. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the impact of mixed organic acids with LAB supplementation on microbial communities in corn silage using NGS.…”