Productivity of lactating cows fed on a diet of haylage from a vetch pea-oat mixture with the introduction of new biological preservative

Abstract

The effect of a new biological preservative representing a mix of lyophilized Lactobacillus plantarum VKPM V-4173, Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis VKPM V-2092 and Propionibacterium acidipropionici VKPMV-5723 strains (40 : 40 : 20) on the quality of haylage prepared from a mix of vetch, oats, and pea has been studied. The total bacteria content in the preservative was 1·1011 CFU/g. Five different variants of conservation of alfalfa haylage prepared at the budding stage were evaluated under laboratory conditions. The variants included a self-conserved control and the preservative at two different dosages (3 and 6 g/ton) with and without the addition of cellulolytic enzymes. The best results were observed in the case of both the enzyme-free and the enzyme-containing preservative at the dosage equal to 6 g/ton. These variants provided the maximum protein content in the haylage (94.3% and 94.5% of the initial content, respectively) and a high content of lactic acid (62.9% and 65.4% of the total acid content, respectively) and also good organoleptic characteristics. The determined optimum biopreservative dosage was tested under industrial conditions using 750 tons of vetch-oats-pea haylage. The use of the biopreservative provided a high-quality haylage of high nutritive value. Industrial evaluation of the effect on the productivity of milk cattle (n = 15) of the addition of the biopreservative to the haylage showed that the maximum average daily yield of milk with basic fat content (3.4%) was obtained from cows of the experimental group whose ration included haylage prepared with the use of the studied preservative. This yield came to32.7 kg , which exceeded the yield for the control group (fed on self-conserved haylage) by 7.0%. Three months feeding of cows with the haylage prepared with the use of the new preservative brought a significant saving of money (4,862 rubles per a head at the prices of 2015–2016).