The effect of the addition of various materials and bacterial cultures to grass silage at the time of making on the subsequent bacterial and chemical changes

Extract

The investigations previously described (1) have demonstrated that the changes occurring in the early stages of silage fermentation result in simultaneous development of acidity and degradation of proteins. There seems little reason to doubt that the lactobacilli play an effective part in the former by virtue of their formation of lactic acid. Contributions to proteolysis are undoubtedly made by various groups of bacteria, and in the later stages of ripening the spore-forming anaerobes, if numerous, will cause extensive protein breakdown and formation of volatile acids, especially butyric acid. The growth of the latter group of bacteria is greatly affected by the pH of the silage, for at values below about 4·0 the only group capable of anything like active multiplication is the lactobacilli. In fact the A.I.V. method of making silage consists in the addition of mineral acids at the commencement in quantities sufficient to reduce the pH to approximately 3·5. The production of good silage with a minimum loss of feeding value, low proteolysis and the presence of only small quantities of butyric acid may therefore be regarded as depending on the formation of sufficient acid in the earlier stages to retard the activities of the obligate anaerobes and proteolytic bacteria in the later stages.