Chemical and microbiological characteristic of silomaize ensiled with some lactic acid bacteria strains

Abstract

The object of the trial was to study the effect of some lactic acid bacteria strains on the chemical composition, energy- and metabolisable protein (MP) content, microbiological characteristics and in-silo weight and dry matter losses of whole crop maize silages.

The whole plant maize raw material was 32% DM, in soft cheddar stage of grain ripeness. It was ensiled in 4.2 litre capacity glass micro-size silos in 5 replicates /each treatment and stored on constant 25 °C room temperature on day 95. The average packing desity was 211kg DM/m³

The applied treatments: 1. Untreated control, 2. Enterococcus faecium 100.000 CFU/g FM, 3. Lactobacillus plantarum 50.000 CFU/g + Enterococcus faecium 50.000 CFU/g, 4. Lactococcus lactis 100.000 CFU/g,

1. Lactobacillus plantarum 50.000 CFU + Lactococcus lactis 50.000 CFU/g, 6. Lactobacillus plantarum 100.000 CFU

The main experiences are the following:

• Chemical composition of whole crop maize silages treated by lactic acid bacteria strains are significantly differed from the control in some cases on P 5% level but the nutritive value (energy and MP content) of silages did not change significantly compare to the control untreated silage.


• Number of yeast and mould CFU of control silage was the highest (4.5 x 10⁴ CFU/g FM) among all kind of treated ones, which was significant on P 1% level.


• Weight loss and DM loss were lower in all of the lactic acid bacteria treated silages in general than it was measured in the control silage. Least weight loss and one-third of DM loss was detected in Lactobacillus plantarum 000 CFU/g treated silage among all kind of silages.