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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (6): 213-226.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2024295

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Effects of biological and antifungal additives on ensiling characteristics, in vitro digestibility, gas production, and aerobic stability of fermented total mixed ration including wet brewers’ grains

Si-ran WANG1,2(), Cheng-long DING1,2, Ji-peng TIAN1,2, Yun-hui CHENG1,2, Neng-xiang XU1,2, Wen-jie ZHANG1,2, Xin WANG1,2, Bei-yi LIU1,2()   

  1. 1.Institute of Animal Science,Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences,Nanjing 210014,China
    2.Key Laboratory for Crop and Animal Integrated Farming,Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs,Nanjing 210014,China
  • Received:2024-07-23 Revised:2024-09-12 Online:2025-06-20 Published:2025-04-03
  • Contact: Bei-yi LIU

Abstract:

Wet brewers’ grain (WBG) is an industrial by-product that is produced in large quantities, and is rich in nutrients, including crude proteins, vitamins, and minerals. However, the high water content makes it challenging to preserve WBG, and this severely limits its use in ruminant farming. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of biological and antifungal additives on the fermentation quality, in vitro digestibility, and aerobic stability of fermented total mixed ration (TMR) containing WBG at a concentration of 100 g·kg-1 fresh weight (FW). The TMR was ensiled in 20-L silos with six treatments: 1) no additives (Control); 2) Lacticaseibacillus casei (LC; applied at 1×106 cfu·g-1 FW); 3) Lentilactobacillus buchneri (LB; 1×106 cfu·g-1 FW); 4) potassium sorbate (POS; 1 g·kg-1 FW); 5) sodium diacetate (SOD; 5 g·kg-1 FW); and 6) calcium propionate (CAP; 5 g·kg-1 FW). All silos were opened after 100 days of ensiling to evaluate the fermentation quality and in vitro digestibility of the silages, followed by a 14-day aerobic stability test. All the TMR silages were well-preserved with low pH (4.32-4.47) and acceptable levels of butyric acid (0.837-1.750 g·kg-1 dry matter) and ammonia nitrogen (76.7-91.8 g·kg-1 total nitrogen). The control, LB, POS, and SOD silages remained stable during the 14-day aerobic stability test, and the POS silage was the most stable. Compared with the other silages, the POS silage had smaller populations of aerobic bacteria (5.50 vs. 6.56-7.66 log10 cfu·g-1 FW) and mold (4.93 vs. 4.96-5.91 log10 cfu·g-1 FW) on day 14 of the aerobic stability test. The POS and CAP silages showed increased in vitro digestibility of dry matter (62.5%-65.4% vs. 55.3% in the control) and neutral detergent fiber (56.3%-59.1% vs. 48.2% in the control). Overall, POS (applied at 1 g·kg-1 FW) is recommended as an additive to improve the fermentation quality, aerobic stability, and in vitro digestibility of fermented TMR containing 100 g·kg-1 FW WBG.

Key words: lactic acid bacteria, antifungal additives, total mixed ration, fermentation quality, aerobic stability