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Effect of Microbial Inoculation of Whole-Plant Corn Silage on Chemical Characteristics, Preservation and Utilization by Steers¹

South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007

Abstract

Effects of a commercial silage inoculant containing Lactobacillus plantarum, on nutrient preservation, silage quality and feed utilization by cattle were evaluated for corn silage in two experiments. Whole-plant corn forage was harvested at average dry matter (DM) contents of 39 and 30% and stored in farm-scale tower (Exp. 1) or bunker silos (Exp. 2), respectively. Inoculant was applied in liquid suspension (11 g of concentrate/metric ton) under ideal ensiling conditions. Lactic acid concentrations (percent of DM) and pH levels at feedout were: control silage, 4.29 and 3.86 (Exp. 1) and 10.46 and 3.72 (Exp. 2); and inoculated (MINOC) silage, 4.46 and 3.83 (Exp. 1) and 9.48 and 3.78 (Exp. 2). Ammonia nitrogen, total volatile fatty acids and lactic-to-acetic acid ratios were similar for control and MINOC silage. Digestibility-N balance studies were conducted with silage from the upper one-third (trial 1) and lower one-third (trial 2) of tower silos. The MINOC silage as compared with control silage had higher (P<.05) DM digestibility, 68.5% vs 65.7% (trial 1) and 71.2% vs 67.7% (trial 2), and higher crude protein digestibility (P<.01) 63.6 vs 58.8% (trial 2). Steers fed MINOC silage retained more (P<.01) N in trial 2 than steers fed control silage. The MINOC silage when fed to growing cattle on high-silage diets did not improve (P>.05) DM intake, average daily gain or feed efficiency. Inoculation of corn forage had no apparent effect on DM recovery.

¹ Published with the approval of the Director of the South Dakota Agr. Exp. Sta. as Research Paper No. 2141.

² The author gratefully acknowledges the partial financial support of this research by Chr. Hansen's Laboratory Inc., Milwaukee, WI.

³ The author gratefully acknowledges William L. Tucker, Station Statistician, for his assistance in statistical analysis and J. Nothnagel, former graduate student, for assisting in the research.

⁴ Dept. of Anim. and Range Sci.