Effect of different additives on bale silage quality of maize fodder

The present study was conductedto evaluate the effect of different additives on the bale silage quality of maize fodder. An experiment was conducted with four different treatments of maize fodder before bailing them. These treatments consisted of; control without additive (MF₀), Lactobacillus casei at 10⁶ CFU/g (NCDC-17) of fresh fodder (MF_LAB), Silotan, a commercial product at 15ml/100 kg of fresh maize fodder (MF_ST) and formaldehyde at 0.5% of fresh maize fodder (MF_FA) as silage additives. The bale silage of four such treatments MF₀, MF_LAB, MF_ST and MF_FA,in replications (3*9 treatments) was prepared by using a high power 100 kg bailing machine. Each treatment was evaluated after 60 days of ensiling in terms of quality parameters like chemical composition, fermentation characteristics, microbial (LAB) counts and in vitro DM degradability. The evaluation of bale silage revealed a significant increase (P<0.001) in pH and decrease (P<0.001) in ammonia nitrogen in MF_FA. There was no significant effect on DM, CP, EE and ADF contents of any treatment, however a significant increase (P<0.001) in WSC was observed in MF_FA, with a decrease (P<0.001) in WSC of MF_LAB. The TVFAs were significantly increased (P<0.001) in MF_LAB and MF_ST, with a decrease (P<0.001) in MF_FA. There was a significant decrease (P<0.001) in acetate content of MF_FA while a significant reduction (P<0.001) in butyrate was observed in MF_ST and MF_FA. There was a significant decrease (P<0.001) in Lactic acid content of MF_FA. The in vitro DM degradability was significantly increased (P<0.05) in MF_LAB. There was no significant effect of treatments on methane (ml/g DM) production in any of the treatments. The microbial counts were found significantly increased (P<0.05) in MF_LAB, whilst a decrease (P<0.05) of microbial count was noted in MF_FA, Yeast counts were significantly decreased (P<0.05) in MF_ST with increase in MF_FA. It was concluded that Silotan or MF_LAB can be used to improve the quality of bale silage.