Effects of microbial inoculants on corn silage fermentation, microbial contents, aerobic stability, and milk production under field conditions

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of 2 corn silage inoculation strategies (homofermentative vs. heterofermentative inoculation) under field conditions and to monitor responses in silage variables over the feeding season from January to August. Thirty-nine commercial dairy farms participated in the study. Farms were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatments: control (nonactive carrier; Chr. Hansen A/S, Hørsholm, Denmark), Lactisil (inoculation with 1 x 10(5)Lactobacillus pentosus and 2.5 x 10(4)Pediococcus pentosaceus per gram of fresh matter; Chr. Hansen A/S), and Lalsil Fresh (inoculation with 3 x 10(5)Lactobacillus buchneri NCIMB 40788 per gram of fresh matter; Lallemand Animal Nutrition, Blagnac, France). Inoculation with Lactisil had no effects on fermentation variables and aerobic stability. On the contrary, inoculation with Lalsil Fresh doubled the aerobic stability: 37, 38, and 80+/-8h for control, Lactisil, and Lalsil Fresh, respectively. The effect of Lalsil Fresh on aerobic stability tended to differ between sampling times, indicating a reduced difference between treatments in samples collected in April. Lalsil Fresh inoculation increased silage pH and contents of acetic acid, propionic acid, propanol, propyl acetate, 2-butanol, propylene glycol, ammonia, and free AA. The contents and ratios of DL-lactic acid, L-lactic acid relative to DL-lactic acid, free glucose, and DL-lactic acid relative to acetic acid decreased with Lalsil Fresh inoculation. Lalsil Fresh inoculation increased the silage counts of total lactic acid bacteria and reduced yeast counts. The Fusarium toxins deoxynivalenol, nivalenol, and zearalenone were detected in all silages at all collections, but the contents were not affected by ensiling time or by inoculation treatment. The effect of inoculation treatments on milk production was assessed by collecting test-day results from the involved farms and comparing the actual milk production with predicted milk production within farm based on test-day results from 2007 and 2008. The average milk production of lactating cows at test days during the study (January to September 2009) was 30.7+/-0.5 kg of energy-corrected milk/d. Milk production was 104.6+/-0.7% of the predicted yield and did not differ among treatments. In conclusion, the present study showed that homofermentative inoculants might not compete efficiently or might not deviate sufficiently from the epiphytic flora on whole-crop corn to affect fermentation in standard qualities of corn silage. Heterofermentative inoculation increased aerobic stability and numerous fermentation variables. None of the treatments affected milk production, and more-stable corn silage seemed to have a similar production value as compared with less-stable homofermented silage. Heterofermented silage can be evaluated for its properties to limit aerobic silage deterioration in the feed chain.

Effects of bacterial inoculation on the fermentation characteristics and aerobic stability of ensiled whole plant soybeans (<i>Glycine max</i> (L.) Merr.)

“…It is also reported that LA is converted into AA with L. buchneri inoculation, and thus higher AA compared with LA can be obtained . The LD inoculant increased the contents of acetic and propionic acids compared with the control (Table 3), and is in line with the general findings of the effects of inoculation with L. buchneri (Kleinschmidt & Kung, 2006;Kristensen et al, 2010;Nkosi et al, 2012).…”

“…The LD inoculation increased (P <0.05) silage pH compared with the control. It is well known that inoculation of LB to forages at ensiling may result in increased silage pH compared with untreated silages , Kristensen et al, 2010. In contrast, LB inoculation did not influence the pH in maize silage (Reich & Kung, 2010), but reduced that of potato hash silage compared with control (Nkosi & Meeske, 2010).…”

“…Yeasts are known to initiate aerobic deterioration of silage (McDonald et al, 1991;Driehuis et al, 2001) and addition of L. buchneri to silage impaired the activity of yeasts . Numbers of yeasts were extremely low or not detectable in silages treated with L. buchneri compared with the control maize silage in some studies (Kristensen et al, 2010;Reich & Kung, 2010). The inoculation of L. buchneri during the ensiling of forages is often criticized because of the increase in silage pH, AA and losses in DM and energy (Reich & Kung, 2010;Wilkinson & Davies, 2012).…”

Caracterização microbiológica, parâmetros fermentativos e estabilidade aeróbia em silagens de forragens tropicais com aditivos microbianos

“…Embora a fermentação heterolática seja menos eficiente quando comparada à homolática, a melhor estabilidade aeróbia da massa ensilada representa grande vantagem na utilização de aditivos contendo cepas de BAL heteroláticas (KUNG; RANJIT, 2001;NISHINO et al, 2004;MENDES et al, 2008;KRISTENSEN et al, 2010;TABACCO et al, 2011;ÁVILA et al, 2012 …”

“…O uso de inoculantes a base de bactérias heteroláticas têm sido eficiente em controlar a população de leveduras, reduzindo a fermentação alcoólica na massa ensilada, e melhorando a estabilidade aeróbia tanto em silagens de milho (RANJIT; TAYLOR; KUNG, 2002;NISHINO et al, 2004;KRISTENSEN et al, 2010;TABACCO et al, 2011), como de cana-de-açúcar (SIQUEIRA et al, 2007;ÁVILA et al, 2008;MENDES et al, 2008;MAEDA et al, 2011;ÁVILA et al, 2012). Silagens de cana-deaçúcar aditivadas com L. buchneri têm mostrado redução de 50% na produção de etanol (1,9 vs. 4,1% da MS), 17% na perda de gases, 56% na perda total de MS e aumento de 64% na estabilidade aeróbia em relação às silagens não aditivadas (PEDROSO et al, 2002(PEDROSO et al, , 2005SIQUEIRA et al, 2007;MENDES et al, 2008).…”