EFFECT OF MICROBIOLOGICAL TREATMENT ON THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF CORN SILAGE

The current study aimed to investigate the effect of microbiological treatment on improving the nutritive value of corn silage as animal feed. Dried whole corn plants were prepared and two ground silos (0.5 ton each) wereused for ensiling whole corn silage and inoculated by bacterial inoculant (containing Lactobacillus plantarum and Entrococcus faecium) at the recommended rate of 1/2g bacterial inoculants/liter of water/ton of fresh whole corn silage. The ensiling period lasted for 50 days. The criteria of response were determined by: the quality of treated corn silage, chemical characteristics and performance of rams, nutrients digestibility and nitrogen balance. Results for treated and untreated silage, respectively, showed that the silage had pH 3.71 and 3.69, Total Volatile Fatty Acids (TVFA) were 2.48 and 1.98 mmol/100ml, and NH3-N values were 6.1% and 6.41% (on dry matter basis). The values of organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), crude fiber (CF), ether extract (EE), nitrogen free extract (NFE) and ash content on dry matter basis, however, were very close in the two rations. There were no significant differences between the two rations for the dry matter (DM). The value of CF digestibility was not significantly different from that in treated corn silage, while ration contents of treated corn silage were significantly higher in OM, CP, NFE and EE digestibility than the untreated corn silage. Recorded values for total digestible nutrients (TDN) and starch value (SV) of rations of treated corn silage were significantly higher than those of untreated corn silage being 52.64 and 63.37 vs. 43.53 and 56.09%, respectively. The digestible crude protein (DCP) values were (7.43%) for ration of treated corn silage by 5.96% for the ration of untreated corn silage.