Nutritive value of corn silage (Zea mays L.) produced with enzymatic-bacterial inoculants

Two inoculated corn silage experiments arc reported. In the first one, pH value, anunonia nitrogen in total nitrogen (N-NH3/Total N), chemical composition and in vitro drymatter digestibility of corn silages with or without enzymatic-bactcrial inoculants were evaluated in laboratory silos. A 6 x 3 factorial arrangement of treatments, with six fermentation periods (01, 03, 07, 14, 28 and 56 days) x three inoculants (control and two commercial inoculants: Maize All (Alltech of Brazil) and Biomax (Christian Hansen) was used in it completely randomized design, with three replications. Effect of the inoculant x fermentation period interaction was detected on silages DM content. larger values corresponding to the inoculated silages, independent of the fermentation period. Inoculants favored silage crude protein (CP) concentration, the smallest value (6.23%) being observed in control silage. It was also observed an effect of fermentation period on neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF), which decreased by 0.302353 and 0.063321 units/fermentation day, respectively. The in vitro dry matter digestibility increased with fermentation period, with increments of 0.0546305 unit/day. In the second experiment, intake and total apparent digestibility of silage nutrients were evaluated With rams. Eighteen castrated adult rams were assigned to three treatments, in a randoinized blocks design, With Six replicates. The diets consisted of 90:10 forage to concentrate ratio in a dry matter basis. The intake of nutrients was not influenced by the experimental diets, being observed mean values of 1.26; 0.14 and 0.84 kg/day for dry matter (DM), crude protein intake (CP) and total digestive nutrients (TDN) intake, respectively. An inoculant effect was observed on CP apparent digestibility, greater value being observed for silage treated with the Biomax inoculant (66.0%). The inoculant addition to corn plant changed nor silage chemical composition, neither the intake of its nutrients by the animal.