Fermentation Profile of Corn, bmr Corn, and Alfalfa Silage with Different Homofermentative strains of Lactic Acid Bacteria.

Four inoculants, B (Lactobacillus plantarum and Enterococcus faecium, Pioneer-1174), C (Lactobacillus plantarum, Ecosyl-MTD/1), D (Lactobacillus pentosus, Agri-king), and E (Lactococcus lactis), were compared with an uninoculated treatment (A) on alfalfa (38% DM, AS), corn (36% DM, CS), and brown midrib corn (33% DM, BMR) silages. All inoculants were applied at 10⁵ CFU/g forage. Four 1-L jars were ensiled of each treatment and fermented for 60 days. Silages were analyzed for pH, ammonia-N, non-protein nitrogen (NPN), organic acids (lactate, acetate, propionate) and ethanol. The pH was not different among treatments (P > 0.05) within crop, ranging from 4.58 to 4.62 in AS, from 3.87 to 3.92 in BMR, and from 3.82 to 3.84 in CS. Among crops, pH was lower in CS (3.83) than BMR (3.89) and AS (4.61). The effect of inoculants on fermentation was different among treatments within each crop. Lactate concentration was greater on E in AS (79.6 g kg^-1 DM) and CS (48.1 g kg^-1 DM), but greater with B in BMR (76.4 g kg^-1 DM). Ammonia and NPN concentrations were also different among treatments. In AS, treatments A, B, and C had similar but 6.7% lower ammonia concentration than D and E. The NPN was lower on C (42.0% of TN) than the rest of the treatments. In BMR, E had the lowest ammonia (4.80% of TN) and NPN (42.7% of TN) concentrations (P < 0.05) than all other treatments. In CS, treatment E had the lowest ammonia (4.5% of TN), but C the lowest NPN (40.1% of TN) concentrations. We conclude that, lactic acid bacteria inoculants have a positive effect on fermentation, but the effect is different among inoculants and crops. Compared with the uninoculated treatment, the biggest impact of lactic acid bacteria inoculants was reduced ammonia and NPN concentrations.