Effects of inoculant application on fermentation quality and rumen digestibility of high moisture sorghum-sudangrass silage

ABSTRACT

This study estimated the effects of a new inoculant producing antifungal and esterase activity on quality of high moisture sorghum-sudangrass (SS) silage with two different hybrids (SX-17 and Speed-up). The SS hybrids were chopped, treated without an inoculant (CON) and with an inoculant containing Lactobacillus plantarum R48-27 and Lactobacillus buchineri R4-26 at ratio 1:1 (INO), then ensiled into 20-L mini silo in quadruplicate for 60 days. After ensiling, silage was placed under aerobic condition for 8 days to estimate yeast and mold. The INO silages had higher (P < 0.05) dry matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fibre, and acid detergent fibre than those of CON silages. The INO silages also had higher (P < 0.05) pH and acetate, but lower (P < 0.05) ammonia-N, butyrate, and lactate to acetate ratio than those of CON silages. Applied INO in both hybrids had lower (P < 0.05) yeast after 4–8 days of aerobic exposure than CON. In rumen, INO silages had higher (P < 0.05) in vitro dry matter digestibility, pH, ammonia-N, and acetate than those of CON silages. In conclusion, the new inoculant application improved not only fermentation quality, but also rumen digestibility of high moisture SS silage.

KEYWORDS:

• Antifungal
• esterase
• inoculant
• high moisture silage
• rumen digestibility
• sorghum-sudangrass

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was performed with the support of ‘Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (Project No. PJ013869022019)’ Rural Development Administration, South Korea.