The objective of the study was to investigate the effects of homofermentative and heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria (LAB) inoculants on fermentation and aerobic stability in a variety of crops and dry matter concentrations. The experiments were conducted with lucerne, ryegrass, ryegrass-timothy, red clover-ryegrass and whole crop maize using three additives in laboratory scale conditions. Each treatment and crop was replicated five times when determining the chemical composition and aerobic stability in the silage. The data were statistically analyzed as a randomized complete block by using the GLM procedure of SAS. Additive application reduced pH and formation of butyric acid, alcohols and ammonia-N in all crops compared with the untreated silage (p < 0.05). The use of additives increased the content of lactic acid except heterofermentative LAB in maize with 276 g kg -1 DM and increased the content of acetic acid except homofermentative LAB in ryegrass-timothy and maize with 276 g kg -1 DM compared with the untreated silage (p < 0.05). It was observed that the aerobic stability of silages was improved significantly (p < 0.05) by using homofermentative and heterofermentative LAB inoculants.

Seedling establishment 24 Growth chambers 25 Measurements and calculations 26 Statistical analyses Field Experiments General description of experiment Site characteristics and fertilization Experimental design and forage sampling Staging procedures and calculations Chemical analyses Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy Weather data Statistical analyses RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Red Clover-Growth Chamber Morphological characteristics Growth characteristics Quality characteristics Timothy-Growth Chamber Morphological characteristics Growth characteristics 104 Quality characteristics 114 Alfalfa-Field Study 121 Location effects 121 Cultivar effects 128 Red Clover-Field Study 137