Quality of meadow grass silage inoculated with cellulolytic bacteria

Fermentation quality of lucerne laboratory silage treated with <i>Clostridium cellobioparum</i>, formic acid and Lactomix

“…As was also shown in previous experiments on grass silage (Baranowski and Russel, 1993), Clostridium cellobioparum bacterial additive decreased (P^O.01) the NDF and ADF contents in direct-cut lucerne silage compared to the untreated sample. The observed lowest content of fibre fractions in FA treated silage may reflect a relatively strong effect of formic acid on the cell wall components (Morrison, 1979;Jaakkola et al, 1991) The positive effect of formic acid on preservation is commonly known and was here confirmed.…”

“…Previous experiments (Baranowski and Russel, 1993) indicate that inoculation of direct-cut meadow grass with cellulolytic bacteria culture Clostridium cellobioparum decreases fibre fraction content in silage when compared to untreated silage. The reduction in neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) content, along with higher amounts of fermentation acids, is thought to occur due to the bacterial degradation of cell wall components and hence promotes the availability of a more fermentable substrates.…”