The effect of propionic and acetic acids on preservation of alfalfa during drying and storage

This study was conducted to study the effect of organic acids on the preservation of alfalfa nutritional value after harvesting. A split plot design with 8 treatments and 3 times was conducted in which organic acids were sprayed on the 20 and 30% moisture content forage before baling. Treatments were: 1) forage with 30% moisture without additives as control, 2) pure Propionic Acid 1 %, 3) Acetic acid 3%,4) a 3% mixture of Propi ilic and acetic (80:20), 5) forage with 20% moisture without additives, 6) Propionic acid 0.5%, 7) Acetic acid 3% and 8) A 1.5% mixture of Propionic with Acetic(80:20), OM basis. The forage was sampled at 1, 45 and 90 days of baling for chemical composition, In vitro digestibility and fungal contamination. Results indicated that GP wasrespectively 13.37, 14.37, 13.81, 13.66, 13.26, 12.72, 13.05 and 13.03 for the treatments 1-8 at fist day of baling that were not significantly varied among the treatments. There were no significantly differences between the treatments for crude fiber. The treatments 1, 2, 3, and 5 were contaminated with fungi when they were tested at 45 days of baling; therefore they were not sampled thereafter for more studies. There were no significant differences between the remainder thereafter for more studies. There were no significant differences between the remainder treatments or between the times for GP and GF content when they were sampled at 45 or 90 days after baling. The In vitro digestibility of dry matter and organic matter were between 62.49 to 67.23 and 56.59 to 65.37 percent that were not significantly different among the times (1 and 45 days). In addition, no significantly differences were observed for digestibility of organic matter in dry matter. In conclusion, Propionic or Acetic acid could not preserve the forage contained 30% moisture when they were used alone but the mixture of two acids kept the forage from contamination. However, either of the above acids or the mixture of them preserved the alfalfa baled with 20% moisture. In general, the crude protein was relatively Iow in all baled of the forage.