The Effect of a Silage Inoculant on Silage Quality, Aerobic Stability, and Meat Production on Farm Scale

Abstract

The effect of inoculation on nutrient content, fermentation, aerobic stability, and beef cattle performance for whole-plant corn silage treated with a commercial product (blend of homo- and heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria, BSM, blend of Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus plantarum, and Lactobacillus brevis, DSM numbers 3530, 19457, and 23231, resp.), was compared to a control treatment with no silage additives (CT). The material had a DM of 323 g/kg, crude protein, and water-soluble carbohydrate concentrations of 87.9 and 110.5 g/kg DM, respectively. BSM increased the fermentation rate with a significantly deeper pH (P < 0.01), a significant increase in the total organic acids concentration (P < 0.05), more lactic acid (P < 0.01), and numerically more acetic acid compared to CT. BSM significantly decreased the concentrations of butyric acid (P < 0.01), ethanol, and ammonia-N compared to the CT. BSM-treated silage decreased DM by 3.0 % (P < 0.01) and had a higher digestible energy and a higher metabolizable energy concentration by 2.3 (P < 0.01) and 1.00 % (P < 0.05), respectively, compared to untreated silage. Aerobic stability improved by more than 2 days in BSM silage. The DM intake of silage treated with BSM increased by 6.14 %, and improved weight gain and the feed conversion by 8.0 (P < 0.01) and 3.4%.

Effect of Additives on In Vitro Intestinal Utilizable Crude Protein in Dairy Cows and Mobile Bag Nutrient Digestibility of Corn, Alfalfa and Whole Barley Silages

“…These results may be explained due to increase NDF content with supplemented additives to silage (as already reported in Table 1). However, the present finding is not in line with Acosta Aragon et al [38] who noted that whole crop corn silage treated with BSM (blend of homo-and heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria) has higher digestible and metabolizable energy than untreated silage. Our results confirmed the findings of Saricicek and Kilic [39] which showed that alfalfa silage treated with formic acid salts has lower ME than untreated control.…”

Effects of Formic Acid or Acetic Acid on the Mixed-Storage Quality of Air-Dried Maize Stover and Cabbage Wastes and Microbial Community Analysis

“…The ratio of ammoniacal nitrogen to total nitrogen in silage treated with acetic acid was significantly lower (p<0.05) than that of negative control over 30-90 days, suggesting that proteolysis was reduced by lowering plant enzyme activity or inhibiting undesirable microorganisms with the addition of acetic acid, potentially reducing the number of yeasts that cause spoilage in the presence of air. Some authors have described the benefits of the inhibition of spoilage organisms (37), demonstrating that lowered pH value in ensiled forage can effectively inhibit proteolysis because plant enzymes are quickly inactivated under these conditions (15). The ratio of ammoniacal nitrogen to total nitrogen in silage treated with formic acid, on average, was significantly higher (p<0.05) than that of negative control when stored between 90 and 170 days due to the higher pH values and weakened inhibitory effects, but ammonium content in all five silages was lower than the recommended value of 10 % of total nitrogen, indicating good silage, which demonstrated that the total nitrogen or crude protein in silages were well preserved (38).…”

The Use of Probiotic Strains as Silage Inoculants

“…Better silage means better hygiene and therefore improvements in animal performance can be expected. The results of a trial discussed below give an example of how milk production can be improved [45]. In the trial, mixed grass-legume sward wilted for 6 -8 hours to 320 g DM/ kg (174 g of crude protein/ kg DM; 6.68 MJ NEL/ kg DM) was ensiled.…”

“…In spite of the sometimes controversial results, several trials have shown advantages from their use, reflected in better silage quality, aerobic stability and animal performance. The results of a trial conducted by [64] will be discussed in detail in the following paragraphs.…”