Full Length Research Paper

Effect of the technology of the additional sowing of drought-resistant clover-grass mixture and silage additives on fermentation process quality and nutritive value of baled grass silages

Jiří Skládanka¹*, František Mikyska², Petr Doležal¹, Jan Šeda², Zdeněk Havlíček¹,

Ondřej Mikel¹ and Šárka Hošková¹

¹Faculty of Agronomy, Mendel University in Brno, Zemedelska 1, CZ-613 00 Brno, Czech Republic.

²AgroKonzulta-consulting, Ltd., Klostermanova 1258, CZ-564 01 Zamberk, Czech Republic.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: jiri.skladanka@mendelu.cz.  Tel: +420-5-4513-3079. Fax: +420-5-4521-2044.

Accepted 31 October, 2011

 Abstract

Additional sowing is able to increase quality of grass stand. Consecutive use of silage additives ensures successful silage process. Additionally sown were semi-natural grass stands in the Czech Republic. Technologies of additional sowing differ in the degree of disruption of the original sward. The mixture that was used consisted of Arrhenatherum elatius, Festulolium pabulare, Dactylis glomerata and Lotus corniculatus. Wilted herbage (5 to 24 h wilting) was chopped to a length of 25 mm and ensiled into bales of 1230 mm in diameter. Pressed bales were twice wrapped in a foil of 750 mm in width. They were treated with the probiotic and probio-enzymatic additive.  After 90 days silages from the stands with additional sowing exhibited lower (P < 0.01) contents of acetic (7.0 g kg^-1DM) and butyric (7.1 g kg^-1) acids in comparison with control stand (12.1, respectively 8.2 g kg^-1 DM) The additional sowing also resulted in the increased (P < 0.01) content of acid ADF (375.7 g kg^-1DM) and in the increased (P < 0.05) content of NEL (5.58 g kg^-1DM)  in comparison with control stand (351.6, respectively 5.52 g kg^-1 DM) . The use of the probiotic additive decreased (P < 0.01) pH (4.50) and increased (P < 0.01) AWE (1025.9 mg 100 g^-1) as well as the content of lactic acid (57.6 g kg^-1 DM) in comparison with control silage (4.98, 798 mg 100 g^-1, 34.2 g kg^-1 DM). The treated silages contained less (P < 0.05) butyric acid.

Key words: Silages of wilted forage, probiotic additive, probio-enzymatic additive, quality of silage fermentation process, organic nutrients, semi-natural grass stand, grass stand regeneration.