Effect of Harvest Maturity, Wilting and Inoculant on the DM Losses and Morphological Changes of Round Baled Rye Silage

Abstract

Three experiments were carried out to determine the effect of harvest maturity and management practices on the dry matter losses and morphological changes of round baled rye silage. Rye was harvested at three growing stages (boot, heading and flowering stage) in three different conditions i) with wilting (unwilted, short wilting and long wilting), ii) with inoculant treatment (untreated, inoculant A and inoculant B) and iii) with three different wrap colors (white, black and green). The morphological changes in round bale silage after 2 months was heavy in the early harvest and unwilted silage. However, harvesting after the heading stage did not change the shape, significantly. Inoculant treatment reduced the morphological changes and dry matter (DM) losses of round baled rye silage. DM loss was decreased with a delayed harvesting date and was significantly reduced by the inoculant. Dramatic changes in the shape were observed in all treatment at boot stage. Inoculant treatment resulted in more severe changes in the boot stage compared to untreated silage. Black color wrapping had the greatest impact among the wrap colors and there were no significant difference in the wrap colors. Harvest maturity and wilting periods was highly correlated (p