Silage without supplementation: problems, advantages and lactic acid bacteria green approach

Abstract

This article review started with some techniques which can indicate the quality of silage such as sensory evaluations (contour of bunker face, color and odor), chemical compositions (moisture, crude protein, soluble protein, ammonia nitrogen, acid detergent insoluble nitrogen, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, fermentation profiles and mould counts and mycotoxin concentrations) and physical characteristics (pH, temperature and particle size). But, most effective indicator is the nutritions quality. It was a key factor to reduce the production cost of feeding of ruminants. There are a lots of nutrients losses especially protein content of forage during fermentations. Lots of losses have been occured during aerobic phase and feedout. Most of the value of protein degradation rate is around 0.5-1.0% per day which gives bad performance especially at the end of fermentation result. There are two chemical process occurs which are Maillard reaction and acid hydrolysis of hemicellulose which both can effect silage quality especially the nutrient loss through degradation and utilization. Lactic acid is preferred to be dominant over other silage fermentation acids because it has a lower dissociation constant (Ka=3.86) which can be major organic acid responsible for decreasing silage pH. Lactic acid bacteria application so-called as green application will give 20 gram of lactic acid production per kilogram compare to control that resulted almost neal lactic acid. This acidic condition will help to stabilize the silage through green low pH condition instead of apply chemical like strong acid which give negative impact and in the same time can reduce the nutrient loss along fermentation and storage.