Effect of enzyme additives on quality of alfalfa/grass silage and dairy cow performance

Abstract

(WSC), ammonia N. acid-detergent fiber N and organic acids, pH, DM disappearance, and temperature changes during ensiling were measured to assess silage quality. Six sheep were also used in a repeated Latin square design to determine digestibility of the second-cut silages. First-cut silage, which contained about 50% timothy, and50% alfalfa was qualiratively similar across treatments except fbr a lower (P < 0.05) concentration of hemicellulose in Grass-treated silage. The only effect (P < 0.05) on quality of second-cut silage. which contained about 80% alfalfa and 20% timothy, was an increase in estimated DM loss in Grass-treated silage compared with Alfa and the control. Despite the negligible effects on silage quality parameters, Grass slightly depressed (P < 0.10) the yield of fat-corrected milk in cows fed first-cut silage, and DM intake of cows fed second-cut forage was elevated slightly (P < 0.05) and fat percent was depressed (P < 0.05) by AIfa relative to the control. Consequently, although the change was small, enzyme treatment of forages may represent a means of reducing the fat percent of milk. Sheep consumed more (P < 0.05) second-cut siiage treated with Alfa, and DM digestibility was higher (P : 0.09) when compared with the control.An enzyme mixture containing amylase may be marginally more eff'ective when forage mixtures contain more alfalfa than timothy.

Effect of fibrolytic enzymes and an inoculant on in vitro degradability and gas production of low‐dry matter alfalfa silage

“…Unlike our previous results25 and other reports,24, 26–28 PDEs did not reduce silage aNDF concentration in this experiment. A similar lack of effect of PDEs on silage fiber concentration has also been observed for alfalfa,21, 23 alfalfa/grass mixes22 and cereal silages 29. It needs to be noted that reduced fiber concentration does not necessarily correspond to increased silage digestibility 30.…”

“…Thus, under certain weather conditions, ensiling direct cut versus wilted alfalfa may reduce overall digestible DM losses. However, most of the published studies on the use of PDE and/or bacterial inoculants as alfalfa silage additives have been with wilted forage (400 g kg −1 DM,21 380 to 460 g kg −1 DM,22 430 g kg −1 DM,23 320 g kg −1 DM24). Relatively few studies investigated the effect of PDE and/or inoculants in low‐DM alfalfa silage (220 g kg −1 DM,15 160–280 g kg −1 DM25).…”

Towards improved silage quality – A review

“…However, for most European research with relatively wet silages, there has not been an increase in digestibility, and improvements in animal performance have been generally small (Jaakkola et al 1991;Jacobs and McAllan 1991). This may be attributed to increased effluent losses removing soluble compounds from the silage, since research with wilted silages has shown benefits in digestibility and animal performance (Fredeen et al 1991;Stokes 1992;Fredeen and McQueen 1993). Effects on animal performance are consistent with enhanced fermentation and similar to those reported for inoculants.…”

Qualidade e valor nutritivo de silagens de capim-marandu (B. brizantha cv. Marandu) produzidas com aditivos ou forragem emurchecida

“…De modo semelhante, Vilela et al (1982), em experimento com com vacas, e Henrique & Bose (1992), em estudo com ovinos, ambos utilizando silagem de capim-elefante, não detectaram efeito do uso de aditivo enzimático bacteriano sobre os valores do NDT e a digestibilidade dos nutrientes, respectivamente. Também não foi observado efeito deste tipo de aditivo sobre a digestibilidade in vitro da matéria orgânica da silagem de Digitaria eriantha (Meeske et al 1992), da MS da silagem de gramínea + leguminosas (Stokes, 1992) e da MS da silagem de sorgo (Rodrigues et al, 2002), mas foi constatado aumento na digestibilidade in vivo da MO da silagem de Digitaria (Meeske et al, 1992) e da MS da silagem de alfafa (Fredeen & McQueen, 1993). Para silagem de capim-marandu produzida com inoculante NUTROSILO, associada a 20% de concentrado, Silva et al…”