| Abstract: | Effect of the bacterial inoculant Sil-All (short for ‘SA') on corn silage quality, digestibility and performance in dairy cattle was studied. SA treated silage resulted in the higher level of retained protein and slightly higher level of residual sugars in that treatment, the better digestibility of the neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and the acid detergent fibre (ADF), the lower pH and evolution of ammonia compared to the control; The fall in pH was most rapid in the SA treated silage in the first 4 days of ensilage, when it matters most for the conservation of protein, compared with the control silage and this was linked more to both lactic and total acids. Both volatile fatty acid (VFA) and lactate content increased with ensiling time, increase degree reached up near 100%; Lactate content in treatment silage was higher than that in the control, and this difference was all maintained at the level of approximately 7％～13% almost in all cases, at length, up 16% in the case of day 15; pH value decreased with ensiling time. Moreover, pH value in most of treatment were lower than that in thecontrol; The digestibility of both dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) was appreciably improved by the use of inoculant SA. Also, in relation to reductions, of NDF and ADF were noted. An increase in milk yield of the order of 0.9kg per head per day in favour of SA was observed. Alternatively, with an average daily feed intake of 20kg, this indicates with 1ton of corn silage milk yield could be increased by 46.5kg. |
