Ensiling characteristics and aerobic stability of direct‐cut and wilted grass silages inoculated with Lactobacillus casei or Lactobacillus buchneri

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to study the effects of wilting and inoculating Lactobacillus casei or Lactobacillus buchneri on the fermentation and aerobic stability of grass silages. Chopped Italian ryegrass (IR) and Festulolium (FE) were ensiled with or without wilting and added L casei (>10 6 cfu g −1 fresh matter (FM)) or L buchneri (>10 6 cfu g −1 FM). Silos were opened after 120 days and microbial counts, fermentation products and aerobic stability were determined. Addition of L casei increased lactic acid and decreased acetic acid and dry matter loss regardless of wilting and forage species. Inoculation of L buchneri decreased lactic acid and increased acetic acid and 1,2-propanediol, while the effects appeared greater in direct-cut than in wilted grass silages. Although 1,2-propanediol accumulated in FE silage, the diol was degraded further to propionic acid and 1-propanol in IR silage. The activity of 1,2-propanediol degradation was lowered when IR was wilted prior to ensiling; 1,2-propanediol remained and the production of propionic acid and 1-propanol was less than one-third of that in direct-cut silage. Regardless of forage species, addition of L buchneri increased dry matter loss compared with the untreated control, whereas the loss was not significant in wilted silages. Ammonia production was increased by L buchneri in direct-cut but not in wilted silages. No heating was observed with or without inoculation in direct-cut IR silage after exposure to air. Other silages were deteriorated when L buchneri was not inoculated, while the spoilage was accelerated when L casei was added to FE.

Wilting and inoculation of Lactobacillus buchneri on intercropped triticale-fava silage: effects on nutritive, fermentative and aerobic stability characteristics

“…In fact, aerobic stability could be improved because acetic acid inhibits growth of specific species of yeast that are responsible for heating upon exposure to air. Similar results have also been reported by Taylor et al (2002) and with those obtained by Nishino and Touno (2005) with Italian ryegrass and Festilolium.…”

“…Similar effects were found by Nishino and Touno (2005) on wilted grass silages, and it was explained by gas losses during fermentation process. Interaction in DM content could be explained due to the fact that the proportional increase in DM in F was higher than in TF.…”

“…The results of this study showed that wilting forage for 24 hours prior to ensiling reduced lactic and acetic fermentation regardless of the type of forage. Nishino and Touno (2005) indicated that DM loss was significantly increased when L. buchneri was inoculated into direct-cut materials, in our study this effect was numerically but not statistically significance.…”

“…Similar results have been reported with cereal silage by Kung and Ranjit (2001) using different rate of inoculants; alfalfa silage by Kung et al (2003) after 56 days of ensiling in laboratory silages; whole plant corn silage (Kleinschmit and Kung 2006) or different crop silages (Ruser and Kleinmans 2005). Nishino and Touno (2005) have also reported that in direct-cut grass silages pH was lower than 4.0 and inoculants treated grass silages had pH values around 4.5. In contrast, Wróbel (2008) also added commercial inoculants containing homo and heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria to grass forages but found no increases in the pH values of the resulting silage.…”

Ensiling of Soybean Curd Residue and Wet Brewers Grains With or Without Other Feeds as a Total Mixed Ration

“…We isolated Lactobacillus buchneri from stable TMR silage as a predominant lactic acid bacterium (LAB), and then found that the 1,2-propanediolproducing LAB can suppress aerobic deterioration of corn and grass silages (Nishino et al, 2003b(Nishino et al, , 2004Nishino and Touno, 2005). Although the reason why L. buchneri predominated during fermentation is unknown, our findings suggest that L. buchneri may account for the stability of BG-containing TMR silage.…”