Effect of Complex Lactic Acid Bacteria on Silage Quality and In vitro Dry Matter Digestibility of Corn Straw

The study was carried out to evaluate the effect of complex lactic acid bacteria on the silage fermentation quality of corn straw and the silage in vitro dry matter digestibility. In the first experiment, the complex lactic acid bacteria inoculants was applied at 3.0x10(5) cfu g(-1) consisted of 1.0x10(5) cfu g Enterococcus faecalis TBT608 and 2.0x10(5) cfu g(-1) Lactobacillus plantram TBT717. Uninoculated silage served as control. After 150 days of storage, the treatment silage had significantly (p<0.05) lower pH values, butyric acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, ammonia N concentration and had significantly (p<0.05) higher contents of lactic acid than control silage. In the second experiment, In Vitro Dry Matter Digestibility (IVDMD) was determined through fermentation, inoculated with rumen fluid of wethers in various combinations with soluble starch. The soluble starch represented a concentrate feed, silage represented feeding sole roughage. The IVDMD was determined at 24 and 48 h after incubation. Silage without inoculated LAB served as control for each feed combination. The results indicate that LAB applied at ensiling increased the IVDMD of the corn straw silage. These results confirmed that application of the complex lactic acid bacteria improved fermentation quality and in vitro dry matter digestibility of the corn straw silage.