doiSerbia

Bacterial inoculant effect on quality of alfalfa silage and haylage

Đorđević Snežana (Agrounik d.o.o., Research and Development Center, Belgrade)
Mandić Violeta (Institute for Animal Husbandry Belgrade-Zemun, Belgrade)
Đorđević Nikola (Biounik d.o.o., Research and Development Center, Šimanovci)
Pavlović Biljana (Biounik d.o.o., Research and Development Center, Šimanovci)

Using of silage and haylage of forage legumes in ruminant nutrition and promotion of promoting proper forage conservation techniques should be an important strategy in livestock production in our country. Forage legumes are difficult to ensile, so it is necessary to apply the starter culture of selected strains of lactic acid bacteria that support the ensiling process and prevent bacterial butyric fermentation and thus contribute to the preservation and improvement of silage and haylage quality. In this paper, the influence of bacterial inoculant ‘Silko for alfalfa’ on the quality of silage and haylage of alfalfa in two separate trials is presented. The inoculant is a combination of homofermentative lactic bacteria Lactobacillus plantarum and Pediococcus spp. The first-cut alfalfa in the second year was used for silage and haylage. The silage was examined in mini-silos in the laboratory, and the haylage at the cattle farm where the plant material was cuts were collected in experimental silo bags. The treatments were control (untreated silage, i.e. haylage) and silage, i.e. haylage treated with inoculant ‘Silko for alfalfa’ (rate of 5 ml t-1 fresh material). The silages were analyzed after 90 days, and haylage after 40. The inoculant ‘Silko for alfalfa’ has been found to maintain the nutritive value of silage and haylage and to improve their chemical, energy and fermentation parameters relative to the control. Since ‘Silko for alfalfa’ positively affects the correct lactic acid fermentation of silage and haylage and contributes to a lesser loss of nutritional value and energy it is expected that it can promote a high level of productivity of ruminants, and thus contribute to the growth of profit in livestock production.

Keywords: alfalfa, bacterial inoculant, haylage, silage, quality