Effect of silage inoculants on the quality of baled whole-crop wheat silages and milking cow performance

Yehoshav A. Ben-Meir, Elie Jami, Yuri Portnik, Shamay Ya'acoby, Yaira Chen, Ibukun M. Ogunade, Adegbola T. Adesogan, Zwi G. Weinberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

The objective of the current experiment was to study the effect of lactic acid bacteria silage inoculants on baled whole-crop wheat silages and on performance parameters of high milking cows that were fed these bales. Treatments included control (no additive), Lacobacillus buchneri 40788 (LB), Lactobacillus plantarum MTD1 40027 (LP) and Pediococcus pentosaceus 30168 (PP), each applied at 106 CFU g−1 fresh matter. Nine kg (dry matter) silages and 20 kg of dry premix were included in the total mix ration (TMR) of 32 high milking Holstein cows in a controlled feeding experiment. In the initial 10 days all cows received the control silage only, followed by 25 days during which the cows received either the control or one of the treated silages in their rations (eight cows/group). All baled silages were of good quality. The daily milk yields in the last week of the experiment were 43.3, 46.5, 44.7 and 44.5 kg, for the control, LB, LP and PP, respectively. The percent milk fat for the respective treatments was 3.39, 3.23, 3.31 and 3.39, and the percent milk protein 3.27, 3.25, 3.31 and 3.28. Among the inoculants used, LB resulted in the largest enhancement of lactating cows performance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)207-214
Number of pages8
JournalGrassland Science
Volume64
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jul 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Inoculants
  • performance
  • silage

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Agronomy and Crop Science
  • Plant Science

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