Effects of Applying Lactic Acid Bacteria and Molasses on the Fermentation Quality, Protein Fractions and In Vitro Digestibility of Baled Alfalfa Silage

Abstract

Alfalfa sometimes cannot be harvested in time due to the rainy season. To improve the fermentation quality, protein quality and digestibility of alfalfa silage harvested late, Lactobacillus plantarum (LP) and molasses were applied in an actual production process in this study. Alfalfa harvested at the full bloom stage was ensiled with (1) distilled water (control), (2) 1 × 106 colony-forming units LP/g fresh matter, (3) 15 g molasses/kg fresh matter (M) or (4) LP + M (LPM) for 55 days. Alfalfa ensiled with LP and/or molasses showed significantly lower pH and ammonia nitrogen contents than the control silage (p < 0.05). All additive treatments decreased nonprotein nitrogen contents and preserved more true protein (p < 0.05). However, molasses increased the acid detergent insoluble nitrogen content in the protein fractions (p < 0.05). The LP significantly improved the maximal cumulative gas production and the maximum gas production rate (p < 0.05) in the in vitro trial. Finally, both LP and molasses improved the neutral detergent fiber digestibility of the alfalfa silage (p < 0.05). The LP and molasses improved fermentation quality and digestibility and preserved more true protein in baled alfalfa silage harvested late in an actual production process. The LP utilized the excessive molasses and partially ameliorated its negative effects of causing higher acid detergent insoluble nitrogen content.

Bacterial Community and Fermentation Quality of Ensiling Alfalfa With Commercial Lactic Acid Bacterial Additives

“…The results suggest that other fermentation products (valeric acid, caproic acid, succinic acid, citric acid, ethanol, propanol, and 1,2-propandiol) might be generated during the ensiling process in LAB-treatments, and inoculating LAB at ensiling increased the utilization of WSC in silage during the fermentation process. This phenomenon was also observed in alfalfa silage (Xie et al, 2021), whole-plant corn silage (Jiang et al, 2020), and whole-plant sweet sorghum silage (Diepersloot et al, 2021).…”

“…Previous studies reported that the inoculation of ensiling alfalfa with self-screened LAB can promote the succession of Lactobacillus during the fermentation process and increase the abundance of Lactobacillus in terminal silage with good fermentation quality (Guo et al, 2018;Hu et al, 2020;Yang et al, 2021). Fermentation quality is improved in alfalfa silage treated with functional LAB screened to produce 3phenyllactic acid (Wu et al, 2020), ferulic acid esterase (Su et al, 2019;Xie et al, 2021), and class IIa bacteriocin (Li et al, 2020). Sun et al (2021b) revealed that alfalfa silage inoculated with LAB from ensiling material had greater fermentation quality than that inoculated with LAB from other forage sources.…”

Effectiveness of using Commercial Probiotics in Biofloc System Culture Media on Growth, FCR, and Feed Efficiency of Catfish (Clarias Gariepinus)

“…The bacteria in the probiotics can utilize the molasses carbon source properly and produce proteinaceous bacterial biomass. According to [9] [15], the sugar contained in molasses is a simple sugar that can be directly fermented by yeast without a complicated pretreatment process. Food Conversion Ratio (FCR) Measurement of Food Conversion Ratio (FCR) to determine the conversion rate of feed consumed to increase fish biomass growth.…”

Production of 17 strains of edible mushroom grown on corn stover and its effect on the chemical composition and ruminal in vitro digestibility of the residual substrate

“…Another component that influences the digestibility of feedstuffs is protein content. Previous studies HAVE demonstrated that the protein fractions have an important role in the digestibility of feedstuffs [ 42 , 43 ]. We observed an increase in protein fractions A, B1, and B2 in the SMS that had A higher IVDMD (Pd-UTMR, L5, and L15).…”