Impact of Packing Density on the Bacterial Community, Fermentation, and In Vitro Digestibility of Whole-Crop Barley Silage

Agriculture

Yanzi Xiao¹  Fuyu Yang²  Lin Sun²  Xiaomei Li²  Xiaoguang Wu³  Ziqin Li⁴  Yanlin Xue⁴  Guomei Yin⁴  Zhiping Liu⁴  Na Na⁴  Chao Wang⁴  Sibo Liu⁴ 

[1] College of Agriculture and Forestry, Hulunbuir University, Hulunbuir 021000, China;College of Grassland Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China;Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Land Surveying and Planning Institute, Hohhot 010055, China;Inner Mongolia Engineering Research Center of Development and Utilization of Microbial Resources in Silage, Inner Mongolia Academy of Agricultural & Animal Husbandry Sciences, Hohhot 010031, China;

关键词: packing density;    barley;    silage;    bacterial community;    fermentation quality;   

DOI  :  10.3390/agriculture11070672

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Packing density has a significant influence on the outcome of ensiling forage. In this study, we aim to investigate the effect of packing density on the ensiling properties, microbiome, and in vitro digestibility of barley silages. Barley was ensiled in polyethylene drum silos (30 L) with respective densities of 600, 650, 700, and 750 kg/m³ fresh matter (FM), and stored for 60 days. The bacterial communities, fermentation quality, and in vitro digestibility were analyzed. Fresh barley had a low count of lactic acid bacteria (LAB, 10⁴ cfu/g of FM), and Lactobacillus was nearly undetectable (<1%). Increasing the packing density decreased the pH and the content of ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N), ethanol, neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and acid detergent fiber (ADF) of barley silage (p < 0.05), and increased in vitro digestibility of dry matter, NDF, ADF, and DM recovery (p < 0.05). A higher packing density decreased the abundances of Enterobacter (from 47.4% to 35.4%) and Clostridium (from 13.5% to 3.8%), and increased the abundance of Lactobacillus (from 1.8% to 17.0%). Thus, packing density positively correlated with Lactobacillus (p < 0.05) but negatively correlated with Enterobacter (p < 0.05). The pH and the content of ethanol were positively correlated with Enterobacter (p < 0.05) but negatively correlated with Lactobacillus (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the density of 750 kg/m³ FM resulted in the highest silage quality of the densities tested.

【 授权许可】

Unknown