Productivity of the clover and timothy mixture when using microbiological preparations

Abstract

The article presents the results of studying the effect of biological preparations created on the basis of such living microbial strains as Bacillus subtilis (Naturost), Lactobacillus buchneri (Naturost-Active) and Bacillus megaterium (Naturost-M) on productivity and nutritional value of the clover and timothy mixture. We conducted a microplot experiment at the Vologda Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Vologda Oblast) in 2019–2021. With the use of biopreparations, the fresh and dry matter yield of the clover and timothy mixture increased by 16.8–32.6% and 20.8–29.8% respectively, depending on the biopreparation used, the volume of cut and the year of study. The nutritive value of the clover and timothy mixture varied significantly over the years of the study, however, in general, the effect of the biopreparations contributed to a certain increase in the content of fodder units and metabolizable energy of the herbage mixture. In the 2019 study, the increase in the nutritional value of herbage was more due to the use of a preparation based on the bacteria Bacillus megaterium. In 2020, a more pronounced increase in the content of fodder units, metabolizable energy, crude protein, digestible protein and fat content occurred when using a preparation based on Bacillus subtilis bacteria, while in 2021 it was based on Bacillus megaterium and Lactobacillus buchneri.