Premium
The effect of a propionic acid bacterial inoculant applied at ensiling, with or without lactic acid bacteria, on the aerobic stability of pearl millet and maize silages
Author(s) -
Weinberg Z.G.,
Ashbell G.,
Bolsen K.K.,
Pahlow G.,
Hen Yaira,
Azriell A.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of applied bacteriology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 0021-8847
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1995.tb03430.x
Subject(s) - microbial inoculant , lactic acid , pearl , bacteria , silage , food science , chemistry , aerobic bacteria , agronomy , biology , philosophy , genetics , theology
Z.G. WEINBERG, G. ASHBELL, K.K. BOLSEN, G. PAHLOW, Y. HEN AND A. AZRIELI. 1995. The effect of applying a new strain of Propionibacterium shermanii (PS), alone or with lactic acid bacteria inoculants (LAB) at ensiling, on the aerobic stability of pearl millet and maize silages was studied under laboratory conditions. The LAB inoculants comprised of Pediococcus pentosaceus (PP) in the experiments with millet, and PP + Lactobacillus plantarum (LP) in various combinations in the experiments with maize. The inoculants (made by Lallemand, France) were applied each at 0˙5 times 10 6 cfu g −1 Silages with no additives served as controls. The pearl millet used was either fresh, or wilted for 2 or 4 d (at 201, 268 and 448 g DM kg −1 , respectively). There were two experiments with maize (at 401 and 353 g DM kg −1 ). After treatment, the chopped forages were ensiled in 15–1 anaerobic jars. Three jars per treatment were sampled on days 2, 5, 10 and 90. At the end of the experiments, the silages were subjected to an aerobic stability test lasting 6 d, in which CO 2 production was measured along with chemical and microbiological parameters, to evaluate aerobic deteioration. The PS inoculant resulted in improvement in the aerobic stability as compared with the control, only in the fresh and 2‐d wilted pearl millet silages. The amounts of CO 2 (g kg ‐1 DM) produced were 8˙5 ± 7˙7 and 6˙8 ± 1˙1 vs 18˙8 ± 22˙7 and 27˙0 ± 18˙5 in the PS treated and control of the fresh and 2‐d‐wilted pearl millet, respectively. All silages of the 4‐d‐wilted millet were stable upon aerobic exposure. In the first maize experiment the PS treatment and the control were more stable than the LAB inoculated silages. In the second experiment with maize, none of the silages were stable upon aerobic exposure; they showed increased p H values and CO 2 production around 20 g kg ‐1 DM. The propionic acid bacteria inoculant had only a marginal effect on the aerobic stability of the pearl millet and maize silages, probably because it could not sustain under silage conditions.